Mother Knows Best
by MayAnny
Summary: Instead of his best friends, Danny only had his ghost hunting parents to witness how his life was ruined by the Ghost Portal.
1. The Silence

**A/N: So holy cow, I've became addicted to this fandom. So I had to write something, seriously!**

**This is my first DP story, but it's also my fourth story overall, so it should be okay.**

**And DISCLAIMER will only be announced in the first chapter, because if you read that I don't own DP here, then I don't need to remind you again. I'm sure your memory is not defective. :)**

**About the story, it's slightly AU. I'll be taking the thing with ghosts a little more seriously. They'll be less 'human' here. Not to mention, this is not really a plot-bunny. I've put some good thought into this. So give it a try. ;) Sorry about any grammar problems, I still have some trouble with English sometimes, and it's late too.**

**Rated T for violence and blood later.**

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**Mother Knows Best **

**Chapter 01 **

**The Silence**

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"Pass me the wrench, dear?"

Danny sighed loudly, to make it clear how bored he actually was with the whole ordeal, but did as asked anyway, passing the tool to her.

Maddie saw right through him sometimes. _Most times_. She smiled at him before glaring at the offending piece of metal that refused to do what it was supposed to do, which was 'spin', like any bolt should.

Her husband was just beside her with his lucky blowtorch, _a Fenton Blowtorch _mind you, making the last few adjustments to the inside of their most prized invention yet.

_The Ghost Portal._

Opening a rift to the afterlife has always been their little dream since way back in college, and they were finally ready to give it a go. Both of them were sure it would work _this time_.

Last time they had an unfortunate turn of events - which included the loss of their best friend back then… but this time, it would work!

Her husband's exacerbated, but lovely optimism was rubbing off on her…

"Aaaaand we're _done_!" Jack said loudly, walking out of the portal to examine their work-and boy, how happy he looked. Like a child on Christmas.

Maddie also puffed her chest with pride. "Look at it, Danny, we're about to make history!"

Danny looked at the portal before nodding. "Yeah, well, can I go now? I gotta meet Sam and Tucker. You can tell me how it went later."

Maddie rolled her eyes, pulling her son by the arm until he was close enough to hug her, looking uncomfortable like any teenager would.

"Don't be silly, Dann-o! You helped, so you might as well see your efforts being rewarded right here and now!" Jack was practically glowing with happiness, and Maddie almost cooed.

Her son, however, wasn't fazed - merely shaking his head in slight embarrassment. "I'm kinda hungry too…"

Maddie excused his lack of confidence. "We'll be done in a second." He didn't believe in ghosts after all. Jack wanted his kids to participate in their ghost hunting passion's activities, even going as far as giving Danny a HAZMAT suit - that looked absolutely adorable on him! (Jack had even used one of his face-stickers on it, which Danny ripped off in pure teenage indignation the moment he saw it in the mirror) But Danny never budged with his lack of faith, just like Jazz.

He liked to stay out of sight by being _as normal as he could be_, and Maddie always knew he was shy like that.

That wouldn't change anytime soon, but at least now they could prove that they were cool parents. "Ready Honey-cakes?" Jack called from the control panels at the front. Near his feet, laid the outlets that would activate the portal.

Maddie moved Danny and herself out of the portal's path, just to make sure. She didn't want to repeat that accident 20 years ago. "Ready now, honey!"

Giving the thumbs up, Jack plugged it in. She felt Danny's shoulders tensing a little as the machine whined to life. Maddie smiled in anticipation, Jack grinned madly and Danny held his breath, before finally…!

Green sparks flew around the hexagonal hole in the wall, and then died down after a second…

Maddie felt a heavy feeling sinking into her stomach. Her shoulders slumping before she looked at the floor. Danny looked at her when she dropped the hands that were holding his shoulders before, as her husband sighed heavily and slumped towards her in what she could only describe as 'pure-disappointment-walk'.

She was feeling it too.

They exchanged silent apologies for the failed project, while Danny walked closer to the portal to examine it. Maddie didn't think about it. It didn't work anyway.

After a few seconds of silent comforting, she looked around for her son. He said he was hungry before, they might as well go upstairs and eat their sorrows away. "Danny?"

"Hm?" He was inside the hole, glancing around as if looking for answers or ways to fix their failure. She felt her heart flutter. Knowing he cared, even if he didn't really believe them, was certainly warming.

"How about we go upstairs? Grab something to eat?" She asked, but her heart wasn't into it. She just wanted to leave the lab.

Danny frowned lightly before sighing, walking back. "Sure-whoa…!" Maddie saw it clearly as the cable on the floor tangled with Danny's boot, and being somewhat clumsy, he immediately tripped, but placed a hand on the wall to steady himself before he could hit his face on the metal floor below.

Maddie winced, but her eyes widened when she heard a _click_, followed by a familiar whine of electricity.

Jack was thrown out of his depressed state at the sound, and when he looked at the portal, he was surprised to see Danny in there, looking like a deer caught in the headlights when the portal glowed with its green hue.

It was a mere half-second when Maddie reacted. "Danny!" And a half-second too late for him to even _move_.

Maddie gaped when light exploded in front of her. Her knees wobbled a little when she couldn't stand anymore, and her son's scream of pure agonizing _pain_ paralyzed her body completely.

She couldn't breathe, much less hear anything but her son, while the logical part of her brain continued to insist that her precious baby-boy was _dying_ right in front of her and she wasn't doing _anything_!

She could hear it…! She clamped her hands on her ears to muffle the sounds, but no avail.

She didn't have time to think, because in just a few seconds he would be _**dead**_! She knew her husband was just as shocked and paralyzed as she was and she couldn't bring herself to scream at him, _to do something,_ because no thoughts were even being processed appropriately!

_Death. So that's how it sounds like…_

The only thing that was being processed was the fact that her son was _already __**dead**_! His screams had stopped and the portal whined off, no longer glowing with energy.

_Silence._

Her shoulders trembled when she heard a _thud_ of something falling on the floor. _'Not like this…'_

Maddie couldn't bring herself to look though. Her hands flew to her face, hiding the sight from her eyes as tears fell freely. She didn't want to look at him, but her mind kept providing images of what she was already expecting.

His scorched form on the floor wasn't something she wanted to look at…

Jack had yet to say anything though, to make any noise, but she wasn't going to risk looking at him. She didn't want to see _him_… It was beginning to sink in. Her baby was…

However, Jack broke the silence suddenly. "…Maddie…" He called. He didn't sound broken, reassuring, or even comforting…

Just… _perplexed_.

'_It's cold…' _Part of her mind quipped. Slowly, she looked at her husband, hands still covering the general area where her son should be. But Jack slowly walked towards that same space.

"…Look at this…" Was he looking at _Danny_…? Jack would never be _fascinated_ with the sight of his child's dead body, so what was he looking at? Danny? Was he alive?! At the sound of hope, Maddie stood up and ran towards her son, stopping abruptly when seeing something else.

_**A** __**ghost**__._

Pure white hair, with that same HAZMAT suit, but in black and white instead of white and black. The ghost was clutching its chest, as if in pain, some electric chain would pass by his form every few seconds, she could see its unearthly glow, pulsing and shining enough to be an useful light source in the dark…

Jack tried touching its shoulders, but the left-over electricity shocked him lightly… Wait…

"It can't be…" Maddie mumbled. "…"

The ghost moved, and Maddie took a step back, Jack only leaned back a little. The floor beneath it was visibly freezing, ice slowly creeping around the ghost. It struggled to look at her direction, its green eyes simmering with energy focused on her. Its eyes, despite the glow, looked dull. "M-mom…?"

Maddie gasped. "Danny…?" She dropped on her knees and tried pulling Danny out of the floor. More than comforting herself, she needed to comfort her baby, and she ignored the frost forming on her gloved hands.

Unfortunately, only to crush her hopes of this just being ectoplasmic radiation playing with light and changing colors, Danny became transparent and phased from her grasp, falling on the floor again.

Danny curled his body as if feeling the cold in the air, hissing in pain. Maddie looked at Jack. He looked conflicted, but it soon turned into a determined look as he inched forward and held Danny carefully, who was struggling to even open his eyes. Jack's fingers trembled to ignore the cold and the frost. "He's shaking…"

Maddie put a hand on his chest. "…No heartbeat… No breathing…" Jack tensed. "Oh my god, Jack, what did we do…?!"

He didn't want to admit it either.

"Danny…" Maddie stroked his now white hair while whipping tears from her eyes, trying to somehow comfort him even though she knew ghosts don't care about this kind of physical comfort.

Both of their eyes widened. It struck them with clarity. Danny was a ghost now… They _killed_ him.

Their hearts sunk. "…At least he remembers us." Jack mumbled.

Danny seemed to be falling asleep, but ghosts don't sleep...

She couldn't help but repeat the same thought over and over. It just didn't seem _real_. Her boy was a ghost… How long until an obsession twisted him beyond recognition? How long until he decides to leave and simply hurt people to feed from human emotions…?

What would he be obsessed with anyway?

"What now…?" Jack asked.

Maddie didn't know how to answer, and for a few minutes, they watched as their son's glow dimmed slowly, the super-charge from the shock fading. Suddenly, a bright light startled them. Jack started, but didn't let Danny fall.

_A ring_. They watched as the ring of white energy parted across Danny's body, _changing_ him. Maddie gaped, now along with her husband who had a similar expression.

When the ring was gone, Danny, looking as alive as ever was on Jack's hands. "H-he's warm now!"

Maddie checked. Indeed he was warm again. "Heartbeat, breathing…" She cupped his cheek, feeling a very human warmth, and took a deep breath. Realization hit her. "…Leave it to Danny to be invisible in plain sight…" She whispered. "Even like this…."

The son they _killed_ was an incredibly dangerous ghost. Especially when he could disguise himself as a human so perfectly…

But a ghost was a ghost. They wouldn't let Danny turn into a monster, even if they had to terminate him.

They owed him that much…

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**A/N: So? How was it? I'll wait for a response before writing more. I mean, I won't put effort into something that won't be worth it. So, till next time! o/ Review, I wish to know how well it went!**


	2. All Lies

**A/N: I actually spent a week waiting for this chapter to write itself. Needless to say, it didn't really work...**

**I'm speeding by, cause I have things I should be doing. Oh, and I'm a total idiot, I posted a story in the middle of a busy week at school. I'm asking for stress.**

**Anyway, I wasn't expecting a response like that! I loved it and I'm happy, despite the depressing topic of this story. Sorry for last chapter's typo by the way, and sorry if you see another one. That was just embarrassing. Thanks for pointing it out _CanIHaveAHug_! *Hugs!* Have another _depressing_ chapter!  
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**Mother Knows Best**

**Chapter 02**

**All Lies**

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"Mhnn…"

Maddie stopped her frantic pacing to look at the form laying on the table of their lab – usually where she and Jack would mess around with whatever electronics they had to create their gadgets – now free of any half-way finished inventions.

"He's waking up Mads…!" Or as close you could get to 'waking up' once you were _incapable of sleep_. Jack was sitting on a chair right in front of the table, only looking back at her to usher her forward.

With a few uncertain steps, she was looking at _him_ once again. The ghost left by her son, now completely hidden by a façade of humanity.

She should be grieving, by all means. But the sense of soul-crushing loss was still absent. It hurts, but there's a simple fact halting some of that pain. _'He remembers me.'_

Hesitantly, Maddie placed a hand on his forehead. _'A little cold, but otherwise, he can fool any untrained civilian.' _She was still fascinated by the prospect. "Danny?" She tried, watching his face turn into an uncomfortable frown, making her pull her hand away quickly.

Jack only sighed at Danny's obvious discomfort. "Maybe we shouldn't…"

"Yes, I know…" No touching for now then.

Suddenly Danny's shoulders tensed and he woke up before they could say anything else. She held her breath as he blinked confusedly. "…Huh?"

Maddie's head tilted to the side, and Jack leaned forward a little.

"Mom? Dad? What… oh, ouch…" He started rubbing his forehead, as if nursing a headache. Sitting straight, feet dangling from the table, he mindlessly looked past them and around the lab.

"...You okay?" Jack finally asked.

"Huh? Yeah, just a headache, I mean-" He stopped suddenly when his eyes landed on the portal. "I…" He trailed off, his eyes widening, remembering what happened, probably.

Maddie looked at Jack with wide eyes. _'He remembers the accident too?' _Was her silent question, to which Jack answered _brilliantly_ with a shrug.

Danny was still looking at the portal, seemingly lost in a frightening memory if his wide eyes were of any indication. Maddie took a step back, pulling her husband, urging him to do the same. "Let him remember…" She whispered.

"What if he doesn't realize he's a…?"

"We don't need to tell him then…"

She wanted Danny to maintain some scrap of humanity, or at least pretend and act like he was human. But she didn't want to lie to him. She was hoping that this way his descend into obsession would slow down. There's no conclusive proof that it'll work, no one has ever tried _to raise a ghost_ after all.

Danny jumped from the table, walking towards the portal, his eyes trailing towards the ground, as if seeing himself in that same position.

The air was thick to Maddie.

Would he realize he was no longer alive? His actions looked genuine. He was acting genuinely confused! Maybe he wasn't lying about it. It was possible (she hoped so) that death didn't immediately form an evil entity. Although, now that Danny couldn't truly feel _guilt_ or _empathy_ and had an unnatural sense of self-preservation, he would just be confused with his memories and unconscious responses until obsession settles and forces him to ignore every and any morals he had during his short life.

This means she had time to get used to the idea of saying good-bye. She just wasn't ready yet, and if she was honest with herself, she might never be.

Jack wasn't ready either, but she knew, she was sure that he could put his responsibility as a ghost hunter first. Especially with their _very much alive_ daughter in the equation. She knew who he would choose.

Maddie, however, was stuck... Somehow.

Watching her son place his hand where his heart should be, undoubtedly feeling the fake heartbeat. He turned around to look at them with a hard stare, hiding the fear and confusion obviously lurking behind it. "What happened?" His tone was casual, calm.

Maddie took a deep breath, debating whether she should tell him or not. _'You know what? Maybe I shouldn't.' _

"Well, you got quite the shock there," Jack tried to sound playful, and failed to hide his nervousness. Normally, he would have used one of his various nicknames for Danny or just used _son _and laugh it off. This time he was hesitant. And this was coming from a man whose first reaction when seeing a ghost was to immediately yell 'GHOST' and attack, no questions asked, no hesitation.

Maddie slapped his shoulder with a frown and he shrugged helplessly, mouthing 'what?'.

Danny merely raised an eyebrow at the scene. "Okay… I-I'll go to my room then…" He lowered his head and walked briskly towards the stairs, but Maddie held back a gasp and stopped him.

She didn't miss how he twitched when she touched his shoulder.

"Wait!" Was he lying? Would he go upstairs and just leave? What else was running through his mind? Despite her decision of taking care and controlling Danny's behavior, Maddie couldn't _trust_ him to behave just yet. She needed more _information_. "T-the portal might have left some… after-effects," She almost choked on the cruel and ironic lies coming out of her mouth. "And we still need to make sure you're fine…"

"But I feel fine!" Danny answered. He's never been a good liar, and maybe that hasn't changed. His eyes darted around the lab and he hid his hands behind his back for some reason.

"Maddie, what are you doing?" Jack called, not really in the loop of what she wanted. She quickly shushed him with _the_ _look_. Which is a frown and a thin mouth that just screams 'Don't you argue with me!'

_First of all_, she wanted to talk to Danny. She couldn't tell if he knew about his _status_ as a ghost or if he was still thinking he was alive. He could know about it, while _lying_ about not knowing...! "Sit here." Once back at the same table, Danny sighed loudly, just like he did earlier to show how _he didn't want to be here. _Good tactic...

"I said I'm fine, mom." He repeated, now more forcefully.

_Second of all_, she was _curious_. Yes, it was a horrible thought, but it's still the first time they had custody of a ghost, and at least, if she was going to _help_ Danny, then she would have to learn more about him. All they had were theories. None of which helped with Danny's current state of confusion.

"You're not fine…" Maddie mumbled, ruffling his hair softly. _'Not fine… And you probably will never be fine again…'_

Danny frowned and looked away, as if knowing exactly what she was talking about.

With a heavy heart, Maddie walked back to her husband who was watching them with a sad frown. God, she missed his goofy smile already…

"What are we doing Mads?" Jack whispered.

"We don't know anything about his physiology. How can we even help him? If we dig deep enough, we might find a way for him to… I don't know, to 'move on' without having to _destroy_ him! Maybe even keep any possible obsessions from hurting other people!" _'Then he can stay...'_

"How are we going to do this? We _hunt_ ghosts! How can-"

"Then I'll _learn_ how to take care of one." Maddie took the chance to take a glance at her son, who was looking downwards, brows drawing closer while examining his gloved hands again.

"By _experimenting_? What about his _self-preservation_ instinct?" That came out louder than expected, and she saw Danny's eyes widen as he took a glance at them. Jack didn't notice, he feared for their remaining living family at the moment. "He's a ghost…! He won't let you get that close!" _'He might become hostile'_ was the unspoken truth. And Maddie _knew_ it.

"Jack, I-"

"..._What_ are you talking about?" Danny's voice cut her, his expression blanching.

'_He could hear us…?!' _Maddie felt a numbness overtake her. _'Of course… Their senses are better than ours…'_

Jack looked like he was a little lost, but Danny didn't give him time to think.

"What do you mean with 'he's a _ghost'_? You think I'm _dead_?" His disbelief was painfully obvious.

Maddie raised her hands to appease him, but only got a suspicious frown in response.

"I'm fine," He said curtly, eyes hardening. "I _feel_ fine. I'm breathing, and my heart's beating." Danny only raised his hand, gesturing to himself, leaving the table and taking steps forward so they could look at him closer.

The lights blinked a few times. The room was noticeably colder. It didn't look like Danny noticed anything.

"Danny…" She tried once again. Danny was glaring daggers at the portal before focusing on them again.

"No! I almost died because of this thing and now you think I'm a ghost because I _somehow_ survived with the ridiculous chance I had?! I'm _lucky_ to be alive, but I'm dead to you?!"

Maddie felt her chest tighten. She didn't expect this level of _denial_. '_And since when did he have a temper?'_

"Danny…!" Jack called him, warning tone equipped as he stepped towards Danny. Surprisingly, her son took a step back, hesitating, eyes widening for a second, but otherwise, his anger never wavered, even as he rubbed his arms, as if feeling the cold like any other human.

"This' ridiculous! You're the one accusing me of being a cruddy _ghost_!" The lights were starting to whine, about to short-cut. Maddie knew she was in no condition to argue anymore. Her eyes were already watering and a feeling of nausea was settling in. She didn't have the heart to explain to her dead child _how_ he died.

"Danny, we will explain, but you gotta calm down!" She heard Jack trying to control Danny, but he turned his back to them, taking steps in seemingly random directions.

"…How can I be calm?! You want to freaking _experiment_ on me!" This time, once he turned around to face them, his eyes were no longer the clear blue she was used to, but the radioactive green she had seen before.

Maddie felt her heart skip a beat. Jack's shoulders hitched in surprise too.

"Y-you know we wouldn't hurt you!"

"Why not?! What are you waiting for?! Rip me apart molecule by molecule already!"

"That doesn't apply to you!"

"That's because ghosts are. not. _real_! And you know it!"

"_You_ are one, and we're trying to help you!"

"Yeah, I do _look_ like a ghost alright!"

After each jab, they took a step closer, and Maddie feared that at some point Danny would lash out. Had Danny been alive right now, she would say he's masking fear with anger, but now she wasn't so sure she could predict his actions anymore.

The lights were glowing more and more, mere watts away from blowing a fuse, and the cold was starting to numb her face and fingers, making shivers run through her spine. She could _feel_ it deep inside. The creeping feeling of being watched, followed; the obvious threat ahead, even though she didn't want to see him as such. Maddie kept her feet planted, her sub-conscious telling her to flee, but she refused to act irrationally _now_.

The feeling of being _haunted_. That's what this was… It was worse than she imagined.

Jack was probably getting a much more frightening version, considering Danny was being _directly_ hostile to him instead.

She had to stop him…! If Danny decided to hurt them, there would be no escape for him! They couldn't keep a potentially harmful ghost near their daughter, and Jazz was Jack's little princess! She had to prove that Danny could be controlled, otherwise…

"-if anything, this is your fault!" That was Danny, her head was back in the loud exchange by his's cracking voice. _'He's scared…' _was her first thought_. 'Ghost don't feel fear…' _was the correcting thought that came soon after.

"-look at what you're doing!"

This had to stop! "Jack, stop right _now_!"

"He's the one who started it!" He pointed out childishly. The _haunting_ _feeling_ was what he was referring to.

"What?!" But Danny seemed clueless to the chaos around him, even when he started to glow with a ghostly white. What should have been a loud but physically harmless arguing was being blown out of proportions, just like she would expect any ghost to do until they gave in to uncontrollable anger and attacked! "I'm NOT doing **ANYTHING**!" The lights gave out, glass shattered and cracked, a spectral echo leaving a trail of broken shards hitting the floor and electrical fuses smoking, everything sounding louder in the silence of the dark lab.

Maddie felt like she was running on an adrenaline spike. She realized that she adopted a fighting stance, her heart was racing, the nausea was replaced by a light dizziness and her limbs were shaking with no regard for her slow trip back to logic-land.

There was no attack. Just silence.

The emergency lights (the few that survived) came to life. Its red hue making her shoulders tense despite the fact that now she could see.

Jack took several steps back, shielding her easily. Like her, he was also expecting an irrationally violent action from Danny.

She heard a quiet sob.

Looking past her husband's big form, she saw that Danny was still at the same place. His eyes were wide and back to the clear blue, breath was hitching, with that same look he used to give her whenever he got hurt years ago: Holding back tears.

"I-I'm sorry…" With that whisper, he crossed his arms, trying to look smaller just like he did back then, and walked with quick steps towards the stairs, leaving them both alone.

Both sighed deeply, the haunting feeling was gone. Maddie held herself back. She couldn't go after him. She didn't even know why she was being so considerate, and feeling so much pain from seeing him like that.

'_Ghosts don't feel regret…' _There it is again... _'Those were just memory responses...'_

That apology wasn't real if Danny didn't feel regret. 'Sorry' he'd said. How many _lies_ would he tell her from now on…?

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**A/N: So noooo, Danny's not dead. Yet-I mean who knows!**

**Anyway, thanks to F_ellow Digitamer, Hybridkylin, doremishine itsuko, Invader Johnny, muney73, xfallenangel13x, Calendula's Harmony, CanIHaveAHug, kirahphantom, DB-KT_ and all _guests_ for the reviews! Any questions that are not supposed to be left as questions (but were anyway because I wrote something wrong) I'll answer through PMs from now on!  
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**I had no idea this story was going to get a good response. I'm surprised, but happy. Review more! Cause it's good advertising for people who won't get past the summary out there!**


	3. A Mother's Dilemma

**A/N: Whoa, that took a freaking while. I mean, 4K words? Kind of lot, but not for 2 weeks I believe. You can blame The Sims 4. That game kept me pretty busy.**

**By the way, to answer my anonymous reviewer, _TheArtfulDodger_, who questioned the use of Self-preservation as a ghost-only attribute (good thinking!) You're totally right. But I gave some thought to this, so try to see it like this: Most writers in the Phandom use the Self-Preservation like this, and yes, every living being has it. However, while thinking about it, I noticed that _humans _can defy this instinct by risking their lives for someone or for a cause, while ghosts cannot. It's the same as a dog. You can't (or better yet, shouldn't) blame a starving dog for biting you when you take it's food, it practically has no choice. But a human does have a choice. So I'll use this concept. Humans have a choice, while ghosts don't. That's basically it. **

**Anyway, thank you all for the reviews and faves and follows! Seriously! This is why I didn't stop in the middle of this chapter like I wanted to. I went to 4K! Woooo!**

**So this chapter is full of stuff! Enjoy. Don't mind any mistakes. It's late again. I might have missed something...**

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**Mother Knows Best**

**Chapter 03**

**A Mother's Dilemma**

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Maddie knew this wasn't right. Couldn't be.

Her thoughts were a jumbled mess at first, but as the minutes passed, the ideas started to make more sense.

Few minutes after her son left, they heard the sound the front door being opened and closed harshly. _He left. _It was all she could think of.

Roughly an hour after that, Maddie was standing alone in the lab, finally thinking more clearly than ever before. Jack had left the lab, not long ago, and she wasn't sure what he was doing up there. Still, now she had time to think, and reflect.

This question kept popping up: _Why?_

Why did she _care_ so much? Why was she so _worried_? Why _wasn't_ she mourning?

Did the shock and fear numb her _brain_? That ghost was _not_ her son! Ghosts are imprints, mere images of people who were gone, created in a more complex process in the relation between the real world and the ghost world (which they intended to dub as the Ghost Zone).

Then _why_ was she looking at that ghost as if he were the _real_ _Danny_?

_That ghost wasn't her child…_

_That ghost was all she had left of her baby…_

Her thoughts were conflicting. Emotions seemed to disagree when she tried to follow logic on this. Maddie wanted to talk to Jazz. Her daughter would know what she was feeling. And she would be able to explain it in an understandable manner. But Jazz wasn't getting involved in this. Especially if _Jack_ had anything to say about it.

But her thoughts were going astray again.

In the midst of these questions, there was _another matter_ that Maddie was trying to understand.

While Danny… While _Danny's ghost_ was… recuperating… from the portal's shock, both Maddie and Jack were too focused on him to pay attention to anything else. There was a detail, a very important detail that they missed.

This is why Maddie was standing in front of the inactive portal, hands gripping each other, brows furrowing in deep thought.

She still felt the hollowness in her chest, slowly fading, and it was fading faster now that realization hit her.

_There was no body._

Nothing at all. The portal was empty. The hollowness was being replaced by a tightening sensation, and her mind was racing, searching for answers.

Maddie took a deep breath, ignoring the painful emotional thoughts and focusing on her logic only. _'The shock wasn't strong enough to completely incinerate human flesh, let alone bones. So what happened…?_

_Oh god, what am I thinking…? No, wait, focus Maddie! You need answers!_

_So… what about Danny's ghost? Where did he come from? Ghosts are formed _inside_ the ghost zone. Human's echoes of strong emotions, normally caused by _death_, drift into the ghost dimension, reacting with ectoplasm, and creating an ecto-signature, which in turn, creates the ghost. The way it looks, the way it thinks, everything comes from the ecto-signature that solidifies when focusing into something, the obsession. Basically.'_

She wasn't sure how long this whole process took, so she couldn't put that into the equation before. It could be a second, or it could be years.

'_Maybe Danny's case proves it only happens within a few seconds…? …It hurts to think about this…'_

Maddie shook her head. She had the lingering need to hit her head on something... But this train of thought was taking her _somewhere_. She just needed to _focus_.

Just a little bit more…

'…_Considering the fact that high quantities of ectoplasm and a human echo of extreme emotion are the required events… Then the portal, technically, had all of the necessary requirements to create a ghost…' _

Almost there…

'_Jack and I were using extremely _purified ectoplasm_ to fuel the portal, and that's what hit Danny… Unlike the proto-portal, this one was incredibly more radioactive – and ectoplasm is like mercury, it's the kind of element that affects only when it's being processed by one's body, in ectoplasm's case, even burning the skin, but not by being _near_ it – and the effects on humans are still elusive – lo the HAZMAT precaution – so whatever happened, it isn't in any theory… Has a ghost ever been formed by purified ectoplasm? Could they even be classified as the same as every other ghost? Or do they have some striking difference that we don't know yet?' _She had never studied a real ghost before, and she would _not_ start with Danny's.

By this point, Maddie started pacing around the lab once again, glancing blankly at the floor while she tapped her chin in thought.

'_I'll have to find another one… I need to know if there's any difference. Thinking logically, with purified ectoplasm being more radioactive, should it mean this Danny is, or can be, much more powerful than the average ghost? What about his ecto-signature? Is it different? More complex? Does it allow human-like feelings? Or it's only a stronger, more dangerous obsession…? What about…' _

Once again, she faced the portal. Her curiosity and hopefulness seemed to be taking over for a second.

'_If this is practically new ground, then, could I consider other strange theories? Stories of ghostly energies latching onto objects, even entire houses, are frequent… But more importantly, they theorized about affixation to dead bodies… Following that trail… Could it be…?' _

…Ghosts are almost ghastly in essence. Therefore, they are supposed to be light as a feather. Jack did mention that Danny was light, but not _that_ light…

There was a distinct ringing in her ears; her heartbeat seemed to escalate in speed suddenly. _'Could Danny's ghost have affixed on his own… Oh god, I can't do this…'_

The nausea was back; her emotions coming back full-force, and now, nothing could stop the tears.

* * *

She wasn't sure how long she'd been staring at the _half-empty _glass of water on the kitchen table.

Maddie had served herself some water – her mouth felt dry and her throat was sore – but even after several half-hearted sips, nothing really changed.

Sitting across her was Jack, with a bowl of fudge just sitting there, and not even the sweetness he adored so much was lifting his spirits. He hoped it would, but it didn't and he was probably pondering _why_ and _how_ that could be possible.

Jack ate fudge when happy, and also ate when sad. Both were mentally exhausted, although for different reasons, so she guessed this was his way of _trying_ to feel better.

What she was feeling was a kind of pain she'd never felt before. It wasn't loss or dread or even fear. She'd felt all of those before. This was a _different_ kind of pain… It made her want to punch things, to see if it goes away.

She didn't even want to mention her recent discovery to Jack yet, it didn't look like he was feeling any better than her, and she also didn't know how to explain it.

Maddie softly handled the glass, lolling its base around the table absently – Jack was doing almost the same with the fork in his bowl of fudge – as she wondered if she should drink the rest of this water and _try_ to sleep this horrible nightmare of a day off. _'Not gonna happen…' _She was so sure of it.

The whole house was warmer, but Maddie had never felt so metaphorically _cold_ before. The night was bound to be forever branded in her mind.

The front door opened, and Maddie jumped, feeling some hope that Danny came back after all.

She deflated a little when Jazz was the one who walked in, and Maddie only watched, absently still, as her daughter walked across the living room, caught sight of them, and raised a confused eyebrow. Dropping her bag full of heavy books on the couch – Maddie worried about her daughter's spine sometimes – she walked into the kitchen.

"Hey Mom. I was going to spend a night at a friend's house to finish studying, but when I called-" When did the phone ring? Didn't Jack hear it? "Wait… Is Dad _not_ eating his fudge?" She tapped his shoulder.

Jack blinked. "Huh?" He looked at Jazz, blinking owlishly. "Oh hey, Jazzyrincess!" Maddie almost gaped at the immediate smile, and at how much _brighter_ he looked now that Jazz was here.

"Hi, Dad. Fudge?" She pointed, brows shooting up.

"Right, we're, uh, just tired! No worries…!" Even Maddie caught that waver in his voice. She had no doubt Jazz caught it too. But she was too exhausted to think, or to worry about Jazz's suspicions, or even Danny, and the consequences of letting him leave like that.

Out there… all alone…

Just… too tired…

"…Alright." Jazz frowned slightly, but thankfully didn't press the matter. "I'll go catch on some sleep then. It's almost 1 AM." She was rarely out this late…

Once left alone, Jack's tired eyes focused on her. "At least she's okay…" He looked like he would fall asleep right there, on top of his fudge. Wouldn't be the first time.

Just seeing Jazz got him to smile again. Maddie should have guessed that this was all he needed. To make sure his little girl was alive and well.

He still looked like he hasn't sleep in days though. They normally could work till 4 AM without rest. _Why_ were they _so_ _exhausted_? Answers came immediately as usual. _'Maybe Danny was feeding off of our emotions, and we didn't even notice… Can he really do that? Maybe he didn't notice it either. Is it normally like this? Or it's just Danny…?' _She guessed most ghosts would have a field day with their misery right now. Danny didn't _look_ particularly pleased, though. _  
_

After that horrible arguing with Danny, Maddie felt like thinking was too much of a hassle, so she stopped thinking; there was also _numbness_, she couldn't explain exactly what it was like; it was a light throbbing in her head, she felt tired, slightly dizzy, and her pulse was probably slowing down too.

Did Danny's hostility cause all of that? Does it matter that he wasn't focusing on her? If so, then what was Jack feeling afterwards?

"Hey Mom," …Didn't Jazz go to sleep? "…is Danny okay?"

Oh boy…

Maddie kept a poker face. "Why do you ask?" Across her, she could see Jack's eye twitch, and then he tried to _shrink_ out of sight. No luck.

Jazz narrowed her eyes, this time, out of obvious suspicion. "Firstly, because you two are acting weird." She waved a finger around for emphasis. "Secondly," She showed a blue, rectangular object, a cell phone. "Danny doesn't just leave his phone lying anywhere. He thinks we'll pry."

"Jazz…" Maddie started, trying to sound condescending. But fooling her daughter was like fooling a lie-detector. Considering Maddie's current level of awareness, this wasn't going to end well, nor anytime soon.

Maybe they could use Jazz's help… Her girl was a smart one… No, no, no… They would not get their remaining child in danger in this situation. She's already told herself that.

And no one, not even their daughter should know what atrocity their ghost hunting did to their son. She always said it was a 'bad hobby' and that it wasn't good for a growing teenager like Danny.

_Who would've guessed? She was right after all. _

"Do I need to check on Danny then?" Jazz asked again, now sitting down, 'psychoanalyzing' both of them, as Danny puts it.

'_Danny…' _It still hurts…

"Well?"

They weren't coming out of this unscathed. Maddie could feel it in her bones.

Jazz sighed, rolling her eyes. She had given up on her and was now focusing on Jack, an easier target. "Did he do something? Did you guys have a fight or… Is he even in the house?" Jazz stopped, somehow got her imaginary confirmation in her father's silence, and continued. "Don't tell me you were in the _lab_ again and he sneaked out. That is _so_ irresponsible! Mom! He's a teenager for god's sake! We can't let him think he can just come and go whenever he wants to at this time of the night! He could get mugged or something! Or worse!"

'I'm more worried about the humans he comes across…' seemed to be what Jack was thinking, judging by the scoff he almost let out.

"But still, without the phone? Why…?" Jazz seemed to be focusing on her own monologue now, and Maddie took the opportunity to take a glance at her mopping husband who looked like a scolded 5-year old. "Jack…!" She whispered.

He raised his big hands to communicate how he had no idea what to do. Right on cue, Jazz butted back in.

"Wait, he's probably at Tucker's again. I'll just call him. _Probably paying video-games…_" She quickly flipped the phone open and searched for the number. While that, Jack was leaning near her to see what Jazz was doing, and possibly, hear the conversation, but Maddie was still processing.

Something clicked.

Danny is still struggling with the truth. He has abilities and limits still unknown to Maddie. He didn't look like he had any control just yet, and was functioning with his memories, the real ones, from the _real Danny_. He's following trained responses without realizing. If the fact that he had a human body affixed to him (or vice-versa) made any difference in this, it was yet to be seen...

An alarm sounded in her head. _'If he's working with his memories, then of course he could go after one of his best friends. But Jack and I only stayed near Danny for a little while, and we're already this drained! What about Tucker or Sam? How long has Danny been there?' _

He could leave Tucker as an empty shell of a person without even knowing why! Maddie knew Tucker and Danny were friends since they were in kindergarten, like brothers! She couldn't let this happen.

"-Tucker?" Jazz's voice echoed in Maddie's thoughts and she was back in reality again.

"Is Danny there? …Oh good," Jazz stood up, walking away from Jack's prying ears.

"What do you mean…? …Really…? I don't know, I… Oh…" Maddie winced. Jazz didn't look happy, especially when she turned her head to look at them, glare, and then turn away again. "Uh hun… I think I know why… Can I talk to Danny…?" This time, Jazz walked into the living room.

Maddie turned to see her husband trying to eat another piece of fudge, only to half-heartedly chew it as if it tasted like old bread. _'He's more drained than I am… I'm already feeling horrible; Jack must be feeling miserable…' _A pang of _anger_ passed through her head, but Maddie quickly squashed it. _'It's not Danny's fault… Not his fault… not…' _It was like a chant. She was sure it wasn't his fault. If anything, it was her fault. But part of her seemed to disagree now.

Wait, no. Danny doesn't know what he's doing. It's not-

"Feeling tired too, Mads?" She heard. Her confused thoughts scrambled away. Blinking, Maddie sighed and nodded.

"Exhausted." She should be asking this to him. He looked worse. Was it because Danny was directing his hostility towards him? Probably…

"…I think it was Danny." He said with finality after a minute.

Maddie rubbed her temples, feeling a headache coming. "It wasn't on purpose-"

"How come it wasn't?" He interrupted her. Maddie furrowed her eyebrows in worry. Jack was angry, she could see it. It rarely happened, but when it did, it was to protect his family. _He's afraid for Jazz. _

If Danny _ever_ hurts Jazz… Even if not on purpose…

Jack was probably feeling the loss. He knows about the imprints and how the whole process works. Maybe he doesn't see Danny the same way she does.

In his book, Jazz was his _only_ child now. He's probably desperate to protect her. _'He can tell that I'm not going to abandon Danny, even if he's just a walking memory, or maybe something more…'_

"_What do you mean 'it's none of my business'?" _Both Maddie and Jack turned at breakneck speed. That was Jazz. Was she talking to Danny?

Jack was the first at the door, followed by Maddie.

"I'm your sister, I'm just worried Danny…" Would Danny tell her what happened? If he did, would she believe him? Or twist it into some psychological nonsense? "Did you guys have a fight? …What? Wait-!" Jazz stopped to look at the phone in disbelief, and then sighed, leaving the phone on the couch before walking towards them again. "He hung up on me."

Maddie tried looking at anything but her daughter.

Jack was frowning at the phone Jazz left on the couch. _'This is not good…'_

"Well, he said _'ask them'_." Jazz crossed her arms. "What kind of fight did you have? If it wasn't bad, Danny wouldn't have_ left the house_ to get away from you two."

"You think he was trying to get away from us…?" Jack asked, tapping his chin in confused thought. Yet another click sounded on Maddie's head.

"Of course! If he were just angry with you, then he would've just locked himself in his room, but he actually _left the house!_ Normal teenagers like Danny wouldn't do that unless they didn't feel safe!"

'_Of course… He thinks he's not safe… He knows we're_ ghost hunters_, and he realizes something's wrong, maybe he even realizes that he's no longer human! He probably thinks we were really going to hurt him. That's what set him off…' _She could see that Jazz was talking to Jack about something, but Maddie's thoughts were miles away from that.

'_I need to talk to him… Assure him that I want to help…' _

Maddie picked the phone on the couch and went upstairs, leaving Jazz talking to Jack, rambling about all the things she's read in her books…

She stopped in front of her son's room. He had left the door closed, and she wasn't sure she could walk in. Not yet anyway. Maddie stared at the doorknob distantly, before turning around and quickly heading to her own room.

Once inside, she closed the door, turned on the light and flipped the phone open, sitting down on the bed while searching for a certain number. The buttons were pushed, and soon, she was waiting for someone to pick up.

She wanted to leave this aside now. What if Danny didn't listen to her? What if he didn't want to talk at all? Maddie closed her eyes and took a deep breath, forcing herself to stay and face this.

Someone picked up. _"Hey Jazz, Danny really doesn't wanna talk to you. Could you-?" _

"It's his mother, Tucker."

"_Oh… Hi, Mrs. F…" _He _did_ sound tired. But that could be because it's late…

"Can I _please_ talk to Danny? It's important…" Her free hand was resting on her thigh, fingers curling and uncurling as she tried to calm herself. Danny would at least listen right…?

"…_I don't know Mrs. F."_ She heard the sound a door being opened and closed. Was he moving towards or away from Danny? _"I've never seen him this upset and moody before. He didn't even want to play Doomed, and uh, let's not forget that's 1 AM now…"_

Upset… Was he really that bothered by the fight? Could he? Also, it didn't look like Danny told Tucker anything else about his… situation.

"I know Tucker. But I _really_ need to talk to him. This can't wait."

"_Mn… Sure then. Try to lift his mood or something. I feel like all this sadness is rubbing off on me."_

Not good…

She heard him yawn, followed by a door opening and closing again, and muffled talking.

Finally, she heard a quiet sigh, though she didn't know who it was on the other side now. Did Danny listen to Tucker? Would he talk to her?

"…_Hey Mom…"_

Maddie felt a warm feeling from hearing his voice again. "Danny, how are you…?" She wasn't sure what she was supposed to ask at this point. She just wanted him home… and away from other humans for now.

"…_I'm fine." _His voice was quiet, pained even. There was a tingle of hopefulness in Maddie. She wanted to believe his pain was real._ "L-look, Mom, about what happened at the lab… I-I don't… I don't know what happened, I…" He stopped suddenly, and s_he heard him sigh again.

"It's okay, Danny."

"_No, it's not…!"_

Maddie hesitated. She genuinely couldn't feel the difference between _Danny_ and his ghost. And she felt horrible because of it. She wanted to hug him, and say that everything is fine, even though she knew they weren't the same. "You know something's not right with you now, don't you, Danny…?"

"_I…"_ She heard what sounded like a frustrated sigh_. "…It doesn't mean I'm dead… It could be anything."_

"Oh, Danny…" She couldn't explain anything through the phone. She wanted him _home_. "Why don't you come home? We'll figure this out."

"_You still don't believe me…"_ He mumbled dully. Maybe she needed to play along? Pretend? She didn't want to lie to him anymore. _"I, uh… I think I want to spend the night here." _

'_I have to convince him to come home…' _She hoped he wouldn't be too _upset_ about this. If he could really _feel_ upset. "...Is Tucker feeling alright?"

"_Huh?" _He sounded confused instead of nervous. So he doesn't realize what he's doing?

"Does he look tired, or maybe depressed? Even though he was fine when he opened the door for you?" She knew he did, unless Danny was lying and was deliberately 'attacking' them earlier.

Danny was quiet for a moment. So she was right.

"I know you don't want to think about what happened, Danny… I don't want to either. But…" She could almost _feel_ him glaring at whatever was in front of him. "But you can't be near people right now…"

"…_I'm not doing-"_

"You're not doing anything. I know… But you're hurting people anyway," Danny has always been a good kid. He never liked hurting anyone. It should be enough to make him see reason. "I felt it, Jack felt it, and I know Tucker's feeling it too, Danny. It's not a good feeling…"

She heard him scoff. _"Then what? You want me to lock myself in the basement and never go near anyone again?"_

"That's why I want you to come home… I don't want to hurt you Danny. I just want to find a way out for you."

"_You. Maybe _you_ don't want to hurt me… What about Dad?"_ Looks like he's past acting upset. If he's truly capable of feeling, then these emotions are, at best, _easily alterable and simplistic._

"Your father doesn't want to hurt you. He's just afraid…"

"_He's my dad. He shouldn't be afraid of me…" _He's back to upset now.

"He's not afraid of you, Danny… He's just afraid for…" 'His family', she wanted to say. But in this case, it _didn't_ include Danny. She knew he would think the same thing.

"_You and Jazz. I get it…" _He did.

"Danny, please…" She had no more arguments. She gave everything she could without yelling or saying anything horrible about this. She was tired. All she wanted was to sleep, and she couldn't do so while Danny was out there.

"_Fine… I get it. I-what?"_ She heard a cloth sound, as if the phone had fallen on something soft. _"Darn it…"_

"What happened? Danny?"

"_Nothing, it's just… It… It fell… The phone I mean…"_

Maddie blinked. "Fell…?" The mood lifted a little. She felt slightly better. After a sigh, she smiled softly. "It fell _through_ your hands, didn't it?" So he doesn't control it. Funny.

"…_Don't laugh. It's _not_ funny."_

She felt tears welling up behind her eyelids. But this time, it wasn't of pure anguish like before. This time, it was a sense of relief and hope. She felt the tension lift, unexpectedly really, and there was a sense of lightness. "Will you come home now?"

"_Yeah… Fine. _Then_ you'll see that I was right about this the whole time." _

'_Oh, how I wish you were right…' _"Don't worry, honey. We'll figure this out."

"_Yeah… See you in a bit then…"_

Maddie lowered the phone, feeling a little giddy, briefly closing her eyes. There was still some hope. Danny wasn't a normal ghost. She wanted to believe it so badly. But she would have to somehow prove it to herself.

Why she was going so far though? Well, even though they were different, _Real Danny_ and _Ghost Danny_, she guessed that, somehow, she loved them both… She knew this wasn't right, but for some reason, she didn't care so much.

* * *

**A/N: I'm not good with mushy feelings! **

**Anyway, I don't have time to write anything else here, so I'll end it here! Hope it was good.**

**A/N Update: I corrected most mistakes I found. I should have done this before, but I really wanted to post this chapter! Don't mind if you see anything slightly different. I tend to change things whenever I find something that bothers me. Like plot-holes... Not that I found any.**

**Some of you must have guessed, but this story is totally inspired by _Real Life _by _Cordria_, which is a million times better, but still my inspiration here. **

**Review and Favorite! I'll start writing next chapter soon! **


	4. Weak Spot

**A/N: OMG! It's even bigger than last chapter! What's wrong with me!? This chapter was so _difficult_ to write! And I don't know WHY! I mean, there isn't any major conflict! Despite the freaking huge length! It's mostly setup I couldn't skip!**

**I want to reach _Bitter Reunions_ so badly! I'm almost giddy with the plans I made for that! **

**As to why I took so long, well, I took my time to write a _schedule_, because I'm short of attention, by genetics, and tend to forget important details, and if I don't write it down somewhere easily accessible, I might fall into some stupid plot-holes later. **

**So I used Microsoft Excel. :D**

**If things go according to schedule, I should reach that part in chapter 8. I also have '_awesome and full of angst_' ideas for _Control Freaks_! Which _should_ be around chapter 16.**

**Well, anyway, here's the chapter. I'm not so sure it's good though... But then again, I'm never sure... I'm really tired again...**

**Also, thanks to everyone for the reviews and faves and follows! I totally forgot to write this note, and considering how tired I am, I'm not surprised! Seriously, everyone is awesome! :3**

**I'm also changing my pen-name to MayAnny, because I should have done so _before_ publishing this story, but I forgot.**

* * *

**Mother Knows Best**

**Chapter 04**

**Weak Spot**

* * *

Surprisingly, the night went by with no nightmares.

Maybe it was because she had no energy to have nightmares...

Maddie woke up feeling strange, albeit reinvigorated. No numbness left on her limbs and no tiredness whatsoever.

Her stomach was rolling as reality hit her, and everything that transpired last night came crashing through in a _very_ dull manner.

There were no delusions. The moment she opened her eyes, she knew it wasn't a nightmare. It was real, and it was done now. Nothing could make time reverse and fix things…

Maddie rubbed her eyes, the gloves scratching her eyelids uncomfortably, still slightly drowsy, but otherwise, awake and alert. She noticed the bed was empty beside her, so her husband was up and about already, strangely enough.

Brief memories came back, of waking her husband up, who was soundly sleeping on top of his fudge just like she predicted he would do, and of dragging him upstairs.

_That was after Danny came back._

She'd wanted to give him a hug, ignoring the fact that she was already pretty much drained of energy, and now, in the morning, she thanked Danny for being _thoughtful_ by avoiding the physical contact and making a beeline straight to his room.

She let a small smile form on her face before she went to change into a cleaner HAZMAT – she was too tired to change last night – and heading out, planning on finding her husband first.

Danny, as she happily accepted, just continued to show evidence of how _different_ he could be, not like what she expected from other ghosts.

She didn't think any ghost would decline a free meal. But Danny did, and it made almost _giddy_.

'_Maybe we can even pretend he's human…!' _She guessed his _unique_ condition was the cause of that. She shuddered a little when remembering exactly what made him unique. But that was, most likely, what set him apart from those evil creatures.

Once in the hallway, she took a look at the door leading to Danny's room, and her smile faltered. She looked back at the stairs, and changed her mind. With a sigh and heavy steps, she walked closer to his room, noticing how the doorknob was _too_ cold to the touch.

There was no sound inside, so she guessed he was… resting? Some sort of ghostly version of the REM sleep cycle? She would have to figure it out later…

Slowly opening the door, Maddie realized that she couldn't deceive herself. Her mouth fell open and eyes widened. Her ghost son was _floating_.

_This is wrong…_

The utter and total _wrongness_ of this sight paralyzed her. Maddie sighed dejectedly, walking in and closing the door behind her. "D-Danny?"

His gravitational center appeared the be at his torso, while his limbs had a _slight_ response to physics, dangling towards the ground, making him look absolutely relaxed, but still too… _abnormal_.

Made her feel unease.

Danny seemed to be somewhat unresponsive in this state, but heard her call and moved his shoulders, fingers twitched and curled, breathing deeply, as if he were waking up, only to open his eyes and frown at the strangely close ceiling as his mind processed things. When it finally hit, he immediately panicked. "Ah! What the-!"

His mind locked on the fact that he's _supposed_ to be bound by gravity, and his weight dragged him down. Maddie moved her arms to catch him, but in a second of hesitancy, he promptly fell back on the bed, the momentum making him roll towards the floor with a loud _'thud'_.

She winced while Danny hissed in pain. Was that pain real? Or he just _thinks_ it is…?

"Okay, that hurt… What…?!" Danny looked at her with wide, panicked eyes, then at the ceiling, then back at her again. "Was I…?"

Maddie blinked and cleared her throat. "Floating…? Yes…" She felt awkward, feeling like she shouldn't have intruded like this. Shouldn't have _seen_ this. Maybe she should have just left him resting.

"Oh… Um…." Neither knew what to say apparently. Danny rested his forearm on the tousled bed, while ruffling his hair with the other hand. "I… I _hate_ this..." His sniffed, voice straining.

'_So do I…' _ Maddie held herself back, not wanting to voice her thoughts.

Looking at the digital alarm clock on the nightstand, she saw that only _two minutes_ had passed and she had yet to feel any effect of Danny's presence. Beside the cold, there was nothing strange, _yet_.

The _room,_ though… There was something weird, she couldn't quite explain… A weird _feeling _creeping on its walls… But she couldn't see anything while inspecting them. Her attention shifted back to the boy on the floor again.

Danny didn't feel the need to change clothes last night. He had changed from the HAZMAT before leaving, wearing his favorite T-shirt and his jeans, but other than taking his shoes off, he didn't bother changing again.

The light was on though. Maddie raised an eyebrow at this. "Why is the light on?" He knows she never liked wasting energy.

Said energy was supposed to be used to power the anti-ghost defenses of the house. Not to light the room unnecessarily.

Danny had stopped massaging his head and was now staring at the floor blankly, absently tapping a finger on the bed as if he didn't even hear her words.

"Danny?"

"Huh?" Now he looked at her, startled, but otherwise still distracted.

"The light. Why is it on?"

He didn't answer for a few seconds, eyes moving around the room slowly before he shrugged half-heartedly. "I dunno…" He turned away from her.

Maddie felt her lips pursing. '_One more lie and counting…' _Looking around some more, she saw the window and shutters, closed tightly. Danny rarely closed the window like that.

With a sigh, Maddie walked forward, as calmly as she could, and opened the window. Danny's eyes following her and she could _feel_ his stare. It made her back's skin crawl for some reason.

She looked at the clock one more time before sticking her head outside.

Three minutes now.

And nothing outside.

"…Can you… _see_ anything…?" Danny asked, almost cautiously.

Maddie frowned. The street was empty; only the occasional bird could be seen flying by. Was he implying that there _was_ something _to_ _see_? "No. Was there something out there last night…?"

She turned around to face him again, only this time, his eyes darted towards the window, then away from her again, absently rubbing the back of his neck like he always did when nervous. _Or when trying to lie._ "No."

Maddie rubbed her hands together, sighing deeply and refraining herself from shaking her head. Danny looked like he hadn't slept for days. If he were human, she would be more worried. Right now, she was mildly curious.

"You know…" She began softly. She didn't want him to think she was angry. "You _should_ tell me if anything is wrong. So I can help you? _Remember_…?"

Danny was tugging at the bottom of his shirt, never meeting her eyes.

She kneeled in front of him and reached for his head, wanting to pat and ruffle his hair, to ease him into telling her, but her hand seemed to freeze, metaphorically, when it got too close.

Danny tensed for a second, squirming, as if trying to stay out of reach.

Like the sign of _'Don't pet the tiger'_ at the zoo when she was younger... She always thought the need for a sign to tell you not to touch the obviously dangerous animal was silly.

It's _human instinct_ to stay away from bigger predators.

That well-trained instinctual part of her brain seemed to be putting Danny in the same box as the tiger, with a big, imaginary and redundant _'Don't pet the ghost'_ sign, and it made her _sick_.

She retreated her hand, cradling it with her other hand as if it were comforting. "I uh…I better go find your father…" Maddie stood up, quickly controlling herself, suddenly realizing that her heart rate had escalated. Only when reaching the door she calmed down again.

Danny didn't respond verbally. Only shrugged and tiredly crawled back on his bed, facing away from her and hiding under the covers.

The conversation was over, and Maddie couldn't help but feel relieved. She left his room, sagging against the now closed door.

The only feeling Danny seemed to trigger was _unconscious fear_, and even that seemed to be prominent when he was particularly uncomfortable…

There was a pressure in her eardrums, and numbness spreading in her chest already…

_Five minutes_.

That was all he needed to make her feel miserable again.

* * *

Roughly 10 minutes on the couch, staring at the walls, was all Maddie needed to collect herself, finally realizing that there was no time to stare at the walls.

Oddly enough, she couldn't remember _caring_ about wasting time, sitting there, minutes earlier. But now it was an annoying urge, an itch to _move_.

Walking across the empty kitchen, Maddie reached the stairs to the lab, and stopped for a second, hearing a strange whir in the air. There was a sound of a _machine_ working at a steady pace, and using considerable amounts of electricity to do so.

Maddie could only think of one machine that could emit a sound like this. None of their inventions made used that much power, with the exception of the Ghost Shield. But that generator was placed in the _Ops. Center,_ not at the lab, even though the button for said shield was conveniently placed at the lab, instead of near the _ham_, like the others.

Maddie frowned, actively stalking down the stairs.

The light in the lab was green, a new sound making itself known. It sounded… otherworldly. Ominous even. Drawing creeping shivers through her spine.

Her suspicions were confirmed once she walked inside.

Maddie gasped and her shoulders tensed, despite the fact that she already expected it. "The portal…?!"

Jack was the one standing near it, with a pensive posture, looking angrily betrayed by the invention. "Yeah. _Now_ it works!" Right… Only after killing their son, the damned thing works!

Maddie walked further inside the lab, stopping beside her husband and adopting a similar posture, her arms crossed and her feet apart.

She could understand the feeling. They spent _20 years_ on this project… There were other completed side-projects, like the ecto-guns and the shield, and many, many theories and ideas and failed inventions, but the portal was always the main goal. Everything would come to fruition after that.

Now there it was. Functioning perfectly…. The long-term project, where they put so much effort, dedication, and _love_, was what ultimately ruined _everything_.

Nothing would be the same because of it! It killed Danny, it put Jazz in danger, it ruined their family and it was _so_ _easy_ to blame it for all the wrong in the world now…!

Maddie's shoulders sagged and she shook her head. It was their project, their invention, _their_ _fault_… She wished it wasn't her fault… She wished it so badly it hurt.

"Why now…?" She asked, struggling to rid herself of straggling thoughts of _how this couldn't be her fault. _She needed to focus on the present, and on the future. _Not the past..._

"I don't know. It just _did_ when I pushed the button." He waved his hands in the direction of the control panel of the portal to give emphasis.

"We must have missed something…" Maddie replied dully. Figures. A simple mistake cost them their son, and it was even _worse_ than when it cost their friend, 20 years back, because Danny actually _died_!

Thanks to the proto-portal, Maddie never left the calculations to Jack again. Instead he focused more on the mechanical part, _so something must have gone wrong there! _

Maddie pulled herself out of her uncontrollable thoughts once again. It wasn't _just_ Jack's fault. It was hers too (It probably was entirely her fault). She wouldn't let herself think she was _innocent_…

Not innocent… ever again…

Maybe they should turn it off. It seemed the door to the world of the dead only brought misery, although slowly. Shouldn't it be _obvious_?

Would it kill her too in a decade or so?

Jack suddenly groaned. "I don't want to turn it off!" It looked like he had the same monologue with himself seconds before.

"Look at what happened, Jack…" How long until it killed another member of her family? Or someone completely unrelated, just to make her feel even more miserable?

Maddie wasn't sure she could take another blow like this…

"I know…! But Mads, we worked on this for so _long_…! And…" Why was he siding with it? Wasn't he worried about their daughter?

"What about Jazz?" She tried, on eyebrow raising slowly.

"I'll protect her! I'm sure."

Maddie blinked, seeing her husband's absolute resolution. Suddenly, she had an idea. She also wanted to keep the portal active for other reasons. Although, she wasn't sure what Jack would say about it. She thought he would have wanted to turn it off.

For the first time since she could remember, her ideas weren't in sync with Jack's. She didn't know what he was thinking, specifically when it was about… Danny.

He diverged their opinions.

So she had to ask. "And… what about Danny…?"

Jack's eyebrows shot up, and then he looked downwards, again thoughtful. Some shame lingering in there too. "I… I don't know. I don't _want_ to shoot him. Even if he hurts Jazz." _'But I will'_ was left unspoken.

Maddie tapped her foot on the ground a few times. Something came to her head. "So… you don't want to shoot Danny, unless _absolutely_ necessary, right"

He nodded silently, looking downcast.

"You're not willing to hurt him in any other way then?"

"Can he _feel_ pain?"

"He sure _thinks_ he can. So it could cause distress anyway, probably." And that means, _possibly_, violence. She wasn't so sure, but Jack didn't know that yet.

He nodded again.

"The portal?" Now, she turned to face him directly. She imagined his idea was the same as hers again.

"If we don't have other ghosts to study and to use for the heavy-experiments," He began, waving a finger up and down and nodding, hopping she would continue his trail of thought.

"Then we won't know how to deal with Danny's behavior."

"Right! Like you said before! And then we won't be able to control it!"

"And _that_ would be dangerous."

"Right?"

"Right!"

Maddie smiled, placing her hands on her hips confidently. Jack had drawn a line. A limit. And he was willing to stick with it. That doesn't mean he accepts _Ghost Danny_ as his son, though…

At best, Danny was a ghost that looked _way too much_ like his son for him to attack, and _maybe_, he had some affection towards him, just like her.

At _worst_… A ghost that his wife refused to get rid of, and that would soon hurt his family if he didn't do something about it.

But that was an unlikely scenario in her mind. Maddie decided to think _positively_, for the sake of her sanity.

Jack nodded to himself with renewed spirits, running around the lab and picking things noisily, some forgotten half-finished, half-failed inventions crashing on the floor.

Maddie tilted her head a little. "Jack, what are you doing?"

"I am going to-" Another crash. "-install a Ghost Shield!"

"What? A Ghost Shie- wait, _where_, exactly?"

"On Jazz's room!" And he went upstairs with the bucket full of materials and tools.

Maddie rolled her eyes, but found it amusing anyway. She went after him with quick steps. She missed his bubbly attitude. "Jack, I don't think Danny is going to do anything… He seems quite… mellow." _With her at least._

"Not when he's angry he's not!" She couldn't disagree…

Once in the kitchen, Jack stopped in his tracks abruptly, Maddie right behind him.

"What are you doing…?" She heard Jack ask, with all colors of confusion.

Maddie couldn't hide the disbelieving look that was on her face when she saw her ghost child _eating a sandwich. Bread, cheese, butter... Food. _"What?" _Ghosts don't eat._

Danny stopped mid-chew to stare at them like he was caught stealing, then resumed chewing slowly. After a second he swallowed his food. "I'm, uh, eating breakfast…"

Jack adjusted the bucket on his arms, genuinely confused. As far as he was concerned, Danny wouldn't even think about food, much less try to eat it. Ghosts don't have a digestive system to process the food, and they don't even have a sense of taste for it, making them think ghosts would find food _repulsive_. "Why?"

Danny didn't seem to care though, as he frowned and resumed eating, as if defying everything he heard from them before. "Cause I was hungry." He still refused to meet her eyes, even after finishing the sandwich. Only focusing on Jack.

Jack took steps around Danny, maintaining a certain distance. "Did that solve the problem?" Ghosts and 'hunger' could have several meanings. None of them are good for humans.

Danny frowned even more. Directing his gaze towards the walls, eyes following something seemingly invisible. "Actually, yeah. It _did_." He then directed his eyes to Jack again, both locking into a stare-down for several breathless seconds.

Maddie observed in the side-lines, looking back and forth between her son and husband with wide eyes.

What was this tension? Why was Danny being so defiant towards Jack, when with her he was so… _not_ aggressive…? "Wasn't there something you were going to do, Jack?" Maddie suggested with a hitch in her voice. The pressure building in the air was becoming palpable. _  
_

Jack broke eye contact first with a jump. "Oh, right!" Danny followed his father's form into the living room with his eyes until he disappeared completely, then let his head fall and hit the table loudly, hiding his face from her.

Maybe he was still miffed about all that yelling last night. Maybe he wants to prove to Jack that he's human as much as he wanted to prove it to her.

…Or maybe he just warmed up to her specifically, and would be acting like this with everybody else…

'_There it is…' _This pressure on her body, and more specifically, her ears, similar to driving up a mountain, where the air pressure drops. _'That's new.'_

Maddie blinked at the thought and frowned lightly. Looking at Danny, who was still slumped on the table, she walked closer, taking notice on the pressure on her ears. Steady but almost unnoticed, it was getting worse as she got closer.

But nothing unbearable.

She sat on the chair beside him, and once again, tried patting his head.

This time, there was no fear response. _'Huh…' _When she finally reached him, his shoulders twitched, but otherwise remained still.

For a minute or so, there was no reaction or strange feeling spreading. The pressure was slowly disappearing as she ruffled his hair. _'Is this a distress response?' _Despite her worries at the notion that Danny was in any kind of distress, she felt intense curiosity growing.

"He hates me..." Danny mumbled, voice muffled by the table.

Maddie continued ruffling his hair. It was like physical contact did calm him down. Yet another singularity Danny had. "No he doesn't... He's just-"

There was a sudden sound of a drill upstairs – Jack started his renovations, and she was sure Jazz would _not_ be happy – and it made Danny jump on his seat, harshly covering his ears with his hands. "W-What is _that_!?"

Maddie blinked. He was shaking... "It's a drill, Danny. Your father is… upgrading some things up there." It wasn't that loud. Sure, no one could sleep with it, but she was used to it.

Danny didn't agree with her. It didn't look like he even heard her after all. The sound of a hammer was next, and each hit made Danny's shoulder hitch, as if it could hurt him.

Now, the pressure was back ten-fold and all over her, and even moving her head was becoming slightly disorienting. _'So it IS a distress response…!'_

Danny's hearing was obviously much more sensitive to shriek-y noises. So she pulled his arm, dragging him to the lab where most of the noise from the house was greatly dampened, moving carefully and holding on any support she could find to avoid tripping.

The sound disappeared slowly as they went down the stairs, but Danny kept his ears covered, with his eyes closed tightly while he let her guide him.

"Alright, you should be okay now. Danny?"

He groaned and slumped against the wall until he reached the floor.

"Are you better now?"

"Yeah, I guess… My head hurts…"

She was sure he was as confused about all of this as she was, so maybe now would be a good moment to explain things to him a little more thoroughly. "It's your hearing sense. It's heightened, so high-pitched and loud noises should hurt you."

"Great. That's all I ever wanted." Obvious sarcasm, but Maddie ignored it so she could focus on her own thoughts.

'_Maybe I can do some tests… Nothing bad or invasive, just basic things. I'm sure he'll let me do that, if I explain…' _ She was too curious to ignore this now.

In the event of ever catching an actual ghost, she always kept some equipment tucked away in the lab, _just in case_, mostly for basic tests she'd always wanted to do.

It wasn't like Danny would ever be on the _examining table and under the scalpel_, but there were _plenty_ of things she could do without hurting him.

"Why is _that_ on?" She heard Danny ask.

Maddie wasn't surprised to see that Danny was talking about the portal. He was, probably, going to a different path and blaming their invention instead of blaming them. She wasn't sure if this was good or not…

"We're not sure. It just worked when Jack tried to turn it on." She was rubbing her gloved hands, eyeing Danny carefully as he stood up and approached the portal.

He mumbled something she couldn't hear, and his expression slacked slowly, as if some sort of realization had hit him.

Danny had all the right in the world to hate the invention that killed him. He had all the right in the world to hate his parents too, but Maddie waited, feeling heart palpitations and a sudden irrational need to vacate the premises immediately. Her eyes darted to the stairs before she shook herself out of it. "Danny?"

It didn't look like he heard her. Maddie began to worry, taking a deep breath to control herself. Danny appeared to be fascinated with something she couldn't see or hear.

Something only he could _sense_.

Danny walked tentatively towards the green and spiraling doorway until he was within arm's reach.

Maddie's eyes widened. Images of losing her son inside the portal passing through her head. Of course Danny could end up being fascinated or entranced by it, she wasn't even sure why the possibility didn't occur to her before. Maybe it felt comforting to be near it.

Maybe it felt like _home_.

As her resolve hardened, Maddie moved to pull Danny away from the green light right when he started reaching for it.

The moment she was close, she could feel the cold again, both from the portal and from Danny. The feeling of being in front of an obvious _threat_ was back, and her hand hesitated, that instinct telling her to stay away, to flee and hide or at least prepare to fight for her life.

But Maddie would have none of it. She wasn't going to let Danny walk into the portal and disappear forever in the infinite realms of the dead. She wasn't ready to let go before and she wasn't ready now.

She wouldn't let him, even if he _wanted_ to go.

With that in mind, she pushed past the fear like a steam-roller, harshly pulling her son away when his hand was a mere inch from it, promising herself she would install anti-ghost doors on the portal in case Danny ever came near it while she wasn't present to pull him away.

He gasped and lost his balance, looking completely disoriented, and fell on the ground. Maddie kneeled in front of him, blocking his vision of the green light.

"W-what happened?!" He didn't even realize what he was doing? It was all unconscious action? His eyes were now glowing green and his skin was cold as ice. Probably a reaction to the portal's energy being so close to him. All the more reason to keep him away.

"You were about to walk into the portal." She said bluntly, hoping he would understand that she didn't want him anywhere near it.

"I was?! I didn't… I didn't see it…!"

Didn't 'see' it, huh? "…Your eyes are glowing." Did he know about the change? It was no wonder he still thought he was human. Maybe if he accepted what he is, he would try to understand how his instincts work, and could, maybe, avoid triggering them. A long-shot, but she could try.

"I-I saw it, yesterday, but…"

"You did?" Maddie helped him stand, still taken aback by the fear of touching him; the glow was slowly dying down, back to the clear blue. He saw it, and still thought he was human? Maddie had to wonder it wasn't pure denial.

She got him to sit on the table, the same where he woke up the night before.

Danny's ear kept twitching towards the portal, but he refused to look at it. It was like he could hear something, but refused to acknowledge it.

The creeping feelings and the irrational fear from before were slowly disappearing, making her realize how tired she was again. She wanted to go to bed again, her eyelids felt heavy and she ended up having to rub her eyes.

Now she knew that all of it, the energy drain and the fear and all of those instinctual reactions, happened depending on Danny's mood. If he didn't want anyone close, then it would strike fear in anyone who _did_ try to get close.

Maybe it was a defense mechanism.

For the draining of energy… she still wasn't sure. There was a myriad of _possibly projected _emotions that caused it, or at least, made it go faster.

The most prominent ones were _anger_ and _fear_.

She had to figure it out soon. Maddie sighed deeply, focusing on the floor. She couldn't stay near him for too long, so this needed to be quick. She quickly searched for whatever helpful equipment she could find around the lab, in drawers or cabinets.

Danny was watching her curiously. Again, she could feel his stare, a tingly, uncomfortable sensation.

She always wanted to know the temperature of a ghost's core, but the tool for that would require her to shove a thick needle in Danny's chest. She settled for a _thermometer_ instead. What it was doing laying there, she had no idea...

There were had other things she never really paid attention to, since those were quite normal, and not at all invasive enough to thoroughly study a ghost.

But none of those bigger tools were going _anywhere_ near Danny, so the rest would do.

Back to him, Maddie put the thermometer in his mouth. It wasn't like any human bacteria would hurt him.

"What are you doing…?" He asked, taking it off his mouth and eyeing it carefully.

"It's just for some basic tests-"

"Tests?!"

"I'm not going to hurt you, Danny. I just need to know a few things."

He frowned, eyeing the thermometer again before putting it back where it was and crossing his arms.

It didn't help that every time he directed a suspicious glare or anything similar towards her, there was a brief, lingering need to step away.

It also didn't look like she hid her discomfort very well, because Danny saw it and his expression quickly softened. "You okay?"

"I'm fine, Danny. Just tired…"

Suddenly, he looked alarmed. "Am I doing that…?!"

"Stop talking." Maddie didn't want the readings to come out wrong. She also didn't want to answer that question. He did as she said, his shoulders sagging in disappointment, and after a minute or so, she checked the little tool.

_32º Celsius, or 89° Fahrenheit... _That's still way below hypothermic…

"What does it say?"

"…Don't worry about it, for now." She bit her lower lip. She didn't want him to worry. "…Can you feel anything, by the way?" She was close enough. Maybe he could describe any strange sensation from being close to a human; maybe she could find a specific source. While that, she moved to check his illusory pulse on his wrist.

"Uh…"

"Danny, if you keep withholding information like this I won't be able to know what's wrong with you." His pulse was difficult to catch. She frowned lightly.

"Ugh… You don't _understand_…!" His gaze lingered towards the portal, but he jerked his head away. "It's like… i-it gets worse when I think about it!"

She didn't need any measuring numbers to know his pulse was slower than it should be. They should avoid hospitals at all costs... "_What_ gets worse?"

"I don't know! I can't explain…! I mean, everything is louder, and everything looks kinda wrong, _a-and there's a bunch of creepy _things _out there…_" The last part was nothing but a mumble, barely a whisper, but Maddie heard it.

His breathing also looked slow... And was he talking about the things only he was seeing earlier?

"What things? When did you see them?"

"Well, last night… when I was going to Tucker's. It looked kinda blurry, so I don't really know what it was."

_'Fascinating...' _"What about what you were hearing?"

His eyes quickly darted to the portal, then back to her. "It just… sounds louder."

_Lie._

"What does?"

"Everything...!

Maddie tapped her chin in thought. _'It's not just 'louder'. Besides the acute hearing sense, he could be simply catching infrasonic waves. So maybe, he can hear infrasound? Or, what about ultrasound?' _"I think I _might_ have the answer to this."

"You do?"

Maddie nodded and walked to the other side of the room, to a table where they kept their computer, taking note of how heavy her arms and legs felt.

"Back in the old days of ghost hunting, before anyone even knew about Ectoplasmic levels, the community of ghost hunting used to look for 'Spectral levels', which were, in essence, _infrasound_."

Danny raised an eyebrow at the unfamiliar term.

"It is 'sound' Danny, only below the human range of hearing. Nowadays, looking for Ectoplasmic residue is much more accurate, as there are a million of other things that can produce infrasonic waves, like earthquakes for example. Which most animals can hear, and it's also why the most ignorant people on the matter believe that animals have a sixth sense that can predict disasters, when they are, actually, just 'hearing the earth moving far away'."

She wanted to test how far he could hear though. So she picked the Fenton Headphones connected to the computer – they use it to catch ghostly sounds in their hunts. It was an old method, but the Fentons still liked using it, mostly for extra data. If the decibel levels were low, then it wouldn't hurt.

"Sooo, I'm _not_ hearing things that don't exist?" He asked as she put the phones on his head.

"I doubt you are." After this, she would grab whatever she found to eat in the fridge and go back to sleep… Next time, they would do this at night, so she could rest at an appropriate time.

"So there _is_ something inside the kitchen wall…" He pulled the phones down, letting it hang on his neck while she pushed buttons on the computer.

Maddie blinked, stopping her typing. "...The kitchen wall?"

"Yeah. Sounded small, like a mouse or something…"

Her eyes widened. "We have _mice_?" Although, a mice walking isn't infrasonic, the vibrations it causes are. Good to know, she went back to typing. _'I'll check that tomorrow… With a Fenton Broomstick or something...' _

"Or this _table_. It makes a weird noise when I move, and it's driving me nuts."

Maddie let herself smile, to which he smiled back, like he was trying to make her laugh. If the smallest sounds irritated him, she couldn't imagine what humans sounded like to him… "Then we'll have to find a way to block all of that. Otherwise, everything out there will make you cringe."

"You can do that?" He looked mildly hopeful.

"We'll see." She tried placing a hand on his shoulder, and was pleasantly surprised when he let her, as there was no _fight-or-flight_ instinct acting up.

For now, she needed all the information she could get.

It sounded like Danny thought of his acute senses as aggravatingly _annoying_. He'd said it before; he _hates_ it as much as he hates the portal. So he probably wouldn't use his abilities at all. That was good.

All she needed was a ghost she wouldn't mind dissecting molecule by molecule… She hoped something would appear soon.

_'Ah, there it is again.' _That pressure was back again. This time less uncomfortable, and more awkward instead. _'Oh... I think I know what this is!' _"Can you hear something? In the air now?"

His easy smile disappeared. "Now?" And so did the pressure, albeit slowly. "I don't hear anything."

Maddie cupped her chin. _'Fascinating indeed...'_

_That's_ what's causing the fear response! She was in contact with some sort of _sound_, but her brain didn't know what it was. It's a natural response to the _unknown_. Danny was doing something without realizing, some kind of spectral hum that her senses couldn't recognize or process.

Probably in sync with his supposed emotions.

Maddie scooted closer to Danny, eyes narrowing, trying to see if she could catch it again, but Danny only leaned away from her. "...What...?"

That's how human's react to frequencies they can't process. _'Our brains go into 'search-mode' to find the source, calling aid to all senses for help, and the longer we go without answers, the more frantic we get, causing the creeping feeling that eventually leads to fear, among other similar feelings,' _She didn't know much about how the human brain worked, psychologically, but in reports of people who claimed they were being haunted, they tended to display such symptoms. Along with others...

Not all of them were real ghosts, of course, and in none of those cases had Maddie or Jack even _seen_ one. But facts are facts. The data doesn't lie. _'This is incredible...!'_

She was sure it had much _more_ than that, but _this_, was the _base_ of it. She had a lot of ground to cover...

"Mom, you're creeping me out..."

_'There it is... A little heavier this time...' _"Sorry, Hun, I was just _over-thinking._"

Danny pursed his lips and frowned in suspicion, making the pressure become even worse, but it only made her _happy_.

She let out a yawn. Keeping her eyes open was becoming a struggle. She really, _really_ wanted to keep going, but there was no denying it. She was getting too tired again. She wasn't going to wait another day though. She wanted to write everything down immediately, and she even had the material necessary to invent something to hear Danny's spectral hum properly.

She needed all the info as soon as possible, and needed to apply this knowledge to their inventions... Not to mention... Jack would probably feel a lot less _paranoid_ about Danny if she found a striking _weakness_.

* * *

**A/N: Done! Gosh, finally I can start writing chapter 5, I've been waiting for that since I started chapter 3... **

**This whole thing with Infrasound in ghost hunting is actually real, but considering the show's universe, I moved a few strings. And considering _Waves_ is one of the VERY FEW branches of physics I enjoy studying, you'll see more of that. Nothing too complicated I think, it's juts high school physics.**

**What do you think about an Interlude? I really wanted to write with Danny's POV. The only reason this whole thing isn't from his POV is because I'm a disaster with WITTY BANTER! I can't write anything decent!**

**Anyway, I'll start writing next chapter right away, because I wanted to for a while now. **


	5. Haunting

**A/N: And it strikes again! It's even bigger than the last one! I had to, unfortunately, cut a third of this chapter off because it was getting too big. 8K, meh. And the part that I really wanted to write was pushed to the next chapter, dammit! **

**I also adjusted a little bit of my schedule, and Vladdie got pushed to _maybe_ chapter 10, but I might put it back into chapter 9 if I don't find the inspiration to write a certain part from a certain episode that comes before that, and even worse, Control Freaks was pushed to_ freaking chapter 20! _I'm not gonna keep updating you guys on this, but it's just to make it clear, that my schedule can and probably will change a lot.**

**As to why I didn't update _sooner_? Well, I was stuck with school activities, like a science fair (I hated it) and I'm also stuck being the co-director _and_ screen writer of a little movie we're making with our class, so yeah, a little _busy_ here. But still, I wouldn't give up on this story (shame on you if you thought that!) There's still much to tell here.**

**Speaking of this story, and consequently, this chapter, _this_ wasn't in the original draft, really. It was created because I didn't think Maddie and Danny were _suffering_ enough, and most people like to be cute and call this kind of thing 'character development', but here, I call it torture, and it's _very_ difficult to write this torture. The plot moved forward too, but that's a side-note. **

**Anyway, here's the chapter. Hopefully it was emotionally strong _enough_, like I intended...**

**So thank _you_! For all the reviews and faves and follows! Happy, happy here! X3 I'm just loving this story so much!**

* * *

**Mother Knows Best**

**Chapter 05**

**Haunting**

* * *

Sometimes, it just felt _odd_ to be near him.

A tremulous, shivery feeling. Like realizing you didn't put enough clothing on top of you to block the winter's cold as soon as you walk out the door. But a lot less… physical.

More _meta_physical. Difficult to explain in words. Somewhat scary, creepy…

Maddie pushed those feelings aside, holding tightly to Danny's arm, and raising a needle carefully.

The moment he tensed, closing his eyes and turning away, she already knew it would be like all the _other_ times she tried this. Suddenly, her hand was grasping thin air, and Maddie groaned, dropping the needle on the lab table beside her and supporting her head with the same hand tiredly. "You really need to stop doing this, Danny…" The chair she was sitting on squeaked when she leaned back, and she frowned when Danny winced lightly at the noise.

"It's not like I'm doing it on purpose…!" He was rubbing his now tangible arm and huffing in frustration.

"Calm down." She warned, fiddling with the tube in the needle, dismantling it and then putting it back together again for no apparent reason.

_It was that weird sensation she got from being near him…_

Maybe '_feeding off of emotions_' was a loose term. The fact that it depended on Danny's state of mind made it seem irrational and inappropriate. It's more like taking other's energy to _compensate_ for the amount he was wasting… on _something. _Not exactly deliberate, like feeding.

Maybe his 'emotions', the ability to _feel_, was what was costing him energy. A side-effect of a possibly more complex form of existence than normal ghosts.

_But that's just a theory..._

It was _fact_ that the drainage was nearly non-existent when he was calm and at ease, so she strived to keep him that way. One less problem to worry about _until_ it becomes a problem again…

There was nothing to bother him, with the exception of the squeaky chair. The portal was off, for now; Jack wasn't nearby; and there was nothing inside the walls. He's calm now, so she's okay.

Maybe the needle is an exception too…

"We need to do something about this... I really need your –" She almost said 'ectoplasm'. " – blood."

Danny sighed and eyed the needle she was fiddling with. "…Maybe I can try…?" Maddie blinked sluggishly when Danny picked the needle carefully. She raised an eyebrow.

It was a tinge of humanity, a strong resemblance of _choice_, choosing to 'risk his health'.

He wouldn't do it, though.

Ghosts don't put their integrity at risk deliberately. Unless it's a fight, which they would only get into if it had something to do with obsession, or if it's battling for its existence. _How_ they know when they can't handle it, well, that's another matter she would have to look into, and Danny, as much as she didn't like to say it, was a little, _weak_ ghost. Barely a week old. He wouldn't last in the Ghost Zone, and would most likely be _destroyed_ or _devoured_ by a stronger and bigger ghost.

She shuddered at the morbid thought, dismissing the images they brought to her mind. One more reason to keep him away from there. There was a surge of _protectiveness_ every time she thought about it.

She watched as he shakily held the needle over his arm, but after a few seconds of aiming, he froze, _unnaturally still_, and quickly put the needle back where it was. "Never mind…" He mumbled with wide eyes, focusing on his feet.

'_Knew it.'_ Maddie sighed, massaging her temples in a vain attempt of stopping an upcoming migraine.

Danny had a very complex form of fear – a ghost with a complex emotion, _now look at that, '_Maddie from a week ago' would have scoffed and laughed away forever – and his fear was like an _attack_ to her mind, like a form of sub-conscious defense that he couldn't let go.

An uncontrollable instinct.

This is why, even though he _let_ her draw his 'ecto-blood', or whatever he had in there, he still didn't let the needle touch him. He didn't want to be hurt, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Yet another matter to look into. _His nerve-endings. _She guessed everything was fried during the shock, but it seemed like he was using them just fine… Was he?

Maybe his ectoplasm had extremely proficient healing proprieties, and it healed the damage done by the shock? It was possible everything was healed, and he was using all the organs to function, essentially, as a human.

She couldn't be sure until she had something to work with. She had plenty of data from days with these smaller tests. She knew his emotions were, at least, very close to the real thing, but _short-lived_ and changed with the drop of a hat, with absolutely no trace of the previous state left.

Another thing she found even more fascinating was the fact that his body seemed to process everything he ate with the utmost efficiency, using, in theory, 100% of its potential with no distinction between the different types of food.

He could, also in theory, eat anything, and more calories would mean more energy. She kept an eye on his weight. It hasn't changed even though he was eating nothing but highly caloric food all week.

He never really complained about it…

Which is why when she asked, he admitted, looking somewhat disturbed at the realization, that he hadn't felt the need _to go_ in days now.

Which is also why she didn't mind him eating all of that junk food that should clog his arteries. He just turned everything into efficient energy, and he was working with that just fine. He could even eat _paper_. He would turn that into energy too.

She still needed his blood though, to know exactly how these processes happen, or if they are, truly 100% efficient, but she only had one type of needle available, unfortunately… It was a _thick_ needle. Not really for blood transfusions. It was metallic, with big hoops for the fingers and a dark green tube where the ectoplasm was supposed to be contained.

She didn't blame Danny for being scared. _Real Danny_ made a fuss over his vaccines too… And those were _small_ needles.

Maddie stopped this particular train-of-thought. _'Ah… memories…' _She wasn't sure if she liked when they came like this… Barging in with no warning.

Maddie shook her head.

Still, she didn't want to go buy smaller ones. It could be suspicious, especially since Danny wasn't attending to school right now. _'My, my… I sound like I'm trying to cover up a murder…' _

Ironically, she kind of was... '_Paranoid, aren't you?' _Being _cynical_ about it made it hurt less too; made it easier… _Don't take it too seriously, don't think about it… _Those are the golden rules.

Danny stopped massaging his arm, only to glare at his own hand, almost daring it to go intangible again. Funny how he changed from scared to angry in a blink of an eye.

He gave up after a few seconds and focused on her, now calm again. "Uh…" He looked downwards. "I know you're tired, and… _I can't believe I'm saying this…_ but, uh…"

Maddie felt her shoulders slumping. She knew what he would ask, so she stood up from the chair and went to the opposite side of the lab with the needle, to stash it until she thought Danny could handle it.

"…When will I go back to school?"

"Danny…" She started with a sigh. "We talked about this." She turned to face him from where she was, hand on her hips and looking as patronizing as a mother could when _not_ wanting their kid in school.

"I know, I know. But –"

"No, no you don't. I told you, _no one_ can know about this." Contrary to popular belief, the government _does_ have a paranormal department. _Paranormal Investigation Bureau, PIB,_ with its ghost hunting's branch, more casually/jokingly known as _The Guys in White, or GIW_. They were all neck-deep in secrets the world didn't know.

She had contacts with this kind of information though.

And they could never get their hands on Danny, which is why he had to be absolutely incognito with this.

"It would be bad for you if people found out, and it's bad for people to _be_ _near_ _you_, Danny. You need to understand, and stay here until we can find a way to… _control_ this…"

"But what if there isn't a way?" His voice strained a little as he stood up and walking a few steps closer. He hesitated after reaching two feet from her. "What if I'm messed up forever? I'm not gonna stay copped up in here! I don't want to!"

"It's not a matter of what we want, Danny. It's what's best for you. If someone finds you, they might take you away, and-" _'And really, really hurt you…'_

"No one's gonna find me…!"

"You don't know that."

"I… I _do_ know! Yeah! I'll stay away from everyone! I won't even have lunch with them, and classes are, like, 40 minutes or so, I'll just sit in the corner during class!" It was like he was getting desperate, looking up at her pleadingly. At some point in his begging, he had walked closer, making her senses tingle in a way she hadn't experienced before.

It sounded… different than the _fear_ or _discomfort_ response. All of the spectral sounds he produced, sounded practically the same from her censorial perspective. With the exception of the fear and extreme discomfort responses. Those just sounded even more numbing.

_'I'll have to write this down…' _"What about your… 'powers' acting up?" It was how he defined them. She would go along with it.

Danny deflated at that, rubbing the back of his neck unconsciously with a strained smile that soon disappeared. "I'll be careful…?"

She maintained a flat look, crossing her arms with finality. "…You can't hold a glass of water for more than a minute before it falls through your hands." There _had_ to be another reason as to why he was insisting so much.

Was there something he wanted at that school? Should she be worried? Wait… "Is this about Sam and Tucker?"

Danny opened his mouth to respond, but closed it quickly, looking away. "You guys won't even let them come here to see me."

"Haven't you been talking to them through the computer?"

"Yeah, but that's not the same…!"

Maddie sighed and rubbed her eyes tiredly. She felt tempted to just let him do whatever he wanted. She knew now that _that_ was yet another effect of being near Danny, so she had to resist it.

Losing the _will_ to think coherently, as it was like her brain was getting numb. "…Danny, I – " Before she could finish, Danny's attention shifted towards the stairs, in a few seconds, she heard why.

"It's done!" They heard loud steps coming from down the stairs. "It is _done_!" Her husband's bulky form appeared at the door, displaying a small invention in the air proudly.

Maddie frowned suspiciously. "Danny… why don't you go to your room? We'll talk about this later."

Danny eyed the little piece of tech with an uncomfortable grimace. "Sure…" He walked briskly past Jack, who had a thoughtful look on his face as he watched Danny go.

By the time he was, for sure, out of hearing range – a distance which Maddie determined to be much greater than human's – Jack rubbed his chin. "I always feel a _chill_ when he walks by."

"What is that, Jack?" Maddie ignored the remark and sat on the chair, crossing both arms and legs, an impassive look gracing her face. "I hope you weren't using my notes to make something to hurt Danny?"

"Well, not 'hurt', really, just _stop _him. Control, for when we need it." He had that pleading look on his eyes, and Maddie caved in, sighing and rolling her eyes.

"Alright, precaution is the way then… Is that… is that a _whistle_?" Maddie grabbed the metal piece of technology out of his hands. It had a very small vial of ectoplasm in it, she guessed it was the 'battery', maybe only enough for one use. "Jack… Danny is not a _dog_!"

He shrugged. "It was the quickest way I could think of! It's just for now. I was going to make something better later."

"You got my notes from last week." He nodded. "So, did you get all the others from the rest of the week?"

"Ah, about that-"

"If you _had_, you'd know that something like this would cause a lot of discomfort for Danny, and _discomfort_ is something that makes him take our energy! If Danny's calm, nothing happens!" She handled it back to him with a shove, and spun her chair away.

"That's not the point, Maddie!"

"Danny is not going to _attack_ us, Jack… He's not like that." Danny was different. He has his ups and downs, but he's overall, _different_.

"…_Our_ _Danny_ isn't like that, Mads…" Her eyebrows uplifted, and her eyes widened.

_Don't say it…_

"That's not _our_ Danny-boy… and you know it."

Maddie felt a sting of tears in her eyes and hunched her shoulder, rubbing her eyes. _'I don't want to think about it… Not now, not ever.'_

"And we know they are all evil, and I'm not saying _Danny_ is," He corrected quickly, walking closer and kneeling behind her chair and placing his hands on her shoulders. "But we know he will be, _someday_, and I don't want to _pretend_ that our Danny is still here, especially when that happens."

Maddie knew that Jack had been mourning very silently these last few days, strangely uncharacteristic really…

"You can't just… _replace_ our Danny…!"

Maddie stood up, wordlessly and tiredly heading towards the stairs, leaving her husband there and not thinking about anything.

She followed the same mental pathway until she found herself in their bedroom, in front of the drawers containing something she had avoided since… That day.

She closed her eyes. _Where is all of this going? _The world seemed to slow down as she opened the bottom drawer.

A book. She'd shown it to a lot of people before... It was filled with pictures of her family, and she loved looking at these photos, remembering good days and how much her kids had grown…

She idly scratched the cover after sitting on the bed, mustering the courage to open it.

The first few pages were old pictures of her marriage. All of her relatives, looking significantly less happy compared to Jack's, who were all big rays of sunshine themselves.

They all loved her then. She wondered what they would think of her now… And her family too. They would most likely blame Jack though.

Next, she found baby Jazz. She still remembers how adorable she was, with that lovely turf of red hair. Jack fell in love with her instantly, hugged her, cradled her and played with her much more than Maddie herself. A father and his little girl…

There were more and more pictures of Jazz, of her baby-self, then of her playing in the park with her teddy bear, on the swing, of her with her first book – small story book – and of her first day at school…

And in the middle of those, sometimes with Jazz and them too, she would see the ones that stung the most. The ones that reminded her of the gaping _hole_ in her heart, the one she'd been trying to ignore for _days_.

Of her holding her baby boy just after he was born, with Jack behind looking sheepish and happy and holding toddler-Jazz, who had a big smile while trying to get Danny's attention.

Danny himself was asleep in her arms, and she looked beyond tired, but still glowing with happiness.

She scanned by several pictures, paying close attention to her son and he got older and older, some with just him and his father, or herself, or just with Jazz, and Maddie found herself regretting the fact that there weren't that many pictures of all of them, together.

The last one was at Jazz's birthday a few months back, and it seemed like such a _long_ time…She was so happy when they got that camera with a timer and a tripod, made it easier to take family pictures, but they should have used it more often…

Danny looked like he was all embarrassed to be there, he relented anyway because he loved his sister, but never admitted, obviously.

It wasn't long before her husband came in, asking if she was okay now. _Of course she wasn't! _

It hurt. It hurt a lot more than she thought possible now that she couldn't ignore it or pretend or do anything to make it go away.

"Are you sure? Can't I... I don't know, get you anything?" Jack couldn't get anything to make her feel better, so he went to the Ops. Center, to work on something to distract himself. It was his brooding and mourning site, and he stayed there very often these last few days.

Not long after that, Jazz came in, asking the same thing. "Are you sure you're okay?" She eyed the book with an odd look. Jazz could see she was terribly upset, and she no doubt knew what that particular book was about.

"I'm fine, Jazz." Maddie didn't want to stop right now, but she didn't want to cry in front of her daughter either. She just needed Jazz to leave so she could let it all out. "You should go to sleep, it's late, and you have school tomorrow." It was difficult to maintain an even tone when she needed to cry so much. It almost hurt when she forced her voice to stay even.

"Yeah… About school… I know you said Danny is sick and all, but he already lost more than 7 days of school." Jazz moved to sit on the bed, her brows furrowing together in worry, but Maddie could hear the patronizing tone. "And it's his first year in a High School. His first days are crucial for stabilizing his peer group and for establishing his routine, not to mention all the classes he's missing."

Maddie tore her eyes away from a particularly heart-wrenching picture of Danny playing with her when he was 10. _'He was so small…' _

"And I get that you're worried, but this is _not_ good for Danny. Maybe we should try taking him to a hospital instead?"

_Hospital? _"No!" Maddie blurted before she could stop herself. "I mean, a hospital is not necessary. Ah, how about you go to sleep now, honey? I'll… I'll talk to you tomorrow." _'Should I explain? Should Jazz know about this…?' _"I'm just really tired right now."

Jazz had an unreadable expression on her face. Her hands were on her knees; her tapping finger was the only indication that she was thinking.

For a few seconds, Jazz didn't say anything. "…Alright. Tomorrow then." She stood up and turned to leave the room. "I've been keeping an eye on all of you, by the way, so don't think I didn't notice anything. You and Dad are acting like someone just _died_,"

The truth in her words felt like a sharp knife piercing her heart. Repeatedly.

She stopped at the doorway and turned to look at Maddie again, hands on her hips. "and Danny's never been more upset. I would even say he's developing some kind of depression."

Maddie didn't respond. She was a little too lost on her memories.

"…Speaking of Danny," Jazz continued, now much more softly than before. "he looks really shaken right now. He didn't want to talk to me, and it's awfully _cold_ there. I was hoping you could… Mom?"

She still didn't respond. It wasn't like the cold would bother Danny, but she didn't want to think about him when she was so focused on those photos.

Jazz growled quietly, leaving and closing the door harshly.

Maddie jumped at the sound. Maybe explaining things to Jazz would be good. Maybe she would understand why he shouldn't be at school or go to the hospital.

It wasn't like he was really sick, and it wasn't like he needed to go to school. He wouldn't grow up, wouldn't need to study, wouldn't need to go to college to get a diploma and grow to be a successful young man.

_Real_ Danny wouldn't grow up, go to college, get married, have kids and live a good life until leaving this world peacefully after a long life.

He had to leave this world _painfully_… After a very _short_ life…

She continued to pass by the memories in those pictures. She didn't want to mix them. The memories of Real Danny shouldn't mix with Ghost Danny. She needed to be able to tell the difference.

She wasn't _replacing_ her son with a new one, she couldn't be. She knew the difference, didn't she?

'_Oh, who am I kidding…?' _She had been ignoring it all week. She was pretending!

It was probably really pathetic… What kind of mother was she, pretending that her son was still around? Jack probably saw it long before this, and maybe she only cared about the Danny downstairs because he _looks_ like the real Danny…

Would she care so much if he looked like a ghost, all the time?

His_ real form_, the one she only saw once… She tried to remember, but the memory was blurry. There wasn't much left of that day in her memory. It was... repressed. The only thing left was the mix of feelings whirling in her head, the fear, the shock, the horror, and the dread, everything mixed up, confusing her and making everything else look and sound fuzzy.

Maddie shook herself out of these memories. She needed to check…

Jack was right. That wasn't their Danny, but she told herself she loved him just the same. Was it only because he looked just like the real Danny? Was she really _replacing_ him to feel less pain? Or did she really care about the ghost downstairs…?

She had to know.

With her mind made, Maddie stood up, going to put the book back where it was carefully.

She wasn't sure how long she was laying there after Jazz left. Could have been a few minutes, or a few hours.

Jazz had said Danny was upset. Maddie felt like kicking herself when realizing what was wrong. Jazz said it was _cold_.Why would it be so notably cold, if not because of Danny?

The clock at the nightstand informed her it was_ three in the morning_. Maddie chewed on the rubber of her gloved thumb._ 'Wait a second…'_ Suddenly, a repressed feeling of panic hit her.

How long was Danny down there? Was the portal off? She couldn't remember… Jack could have turned it on while he was working there and he didn't read all of her notes. She ran downstairs as _quietly_ as she could. She really didn't need Jazz to wake up and grind her about this.

Once she reached the bottom, she felt the air becoming cold, like a brisk of ice coming from the living room.

Maddie repressed the urge to cringe and rub her arms. She peeked past the doorway carefully, the lights were off, and she felt her shoulders tensing when she saw Danny, just sitting there on the couch with his knees up, looking blankly at the TV, which displayed nothing but a blue screen, frowning at it before his face became blank again. The TV, the noise she couldn't quite hear _had_ to be bothering him, so why was he here like this?

She felt her heart speeding up when she saw a glass of water on the coffee table, half empty with water, but _frozen solid_.

Every time Danny did anything remotely _inhuman_, Maddie felt unease, like something was terribly wrong with what she was seeing.

And it was. It was _wrong_. It reminded her that this was _not_ her Danny, and it nearly broke her little delusions. She avoided the thought entirely, putting her strength in somehow repressing these abnormalities and make him as human as he could be, telling him not to use any of these abilities, ever.

Every time something fell through his hands right in front of her, she flinched, and she panicked when he simply phased through the floor, obviously by accident.

His footsteps were completely silent, she rarely noticed him walking near her.

When distracted, he just walked through things, even doors, completely _ignoring_ the real world.

When embarrassed or uncomfortable, he just went invisible suddenly, and he either went somewhere else without any warnings, or they both stayed in awkward silence until he managed to become visible again.

He also paced compulsively in his room, _Danny's room_, from time to time. Spent too much time thinking, looking at random corners, or around the room or through windows, as if watching something…

It was getting harder and harder to ignore all the non-human behavior. It has been _a week_, and she was already reaching her limit. She wasn't sure how long she would be able to take care of Danny, even though she told herself she would, for as long as possible.

Maddie took a deep breath. She told herself that she would find out if she truly cared for him or not. She had to, right now.

"…Heard you guys talking…" She heard before she could even take a step inside the living room.

Maddie blinked. "From all the way here…?"

"…I didn't _really_ leave the lab…"

'_Did he stay by the stairs? He can't turn invisible at will yet, can he…? I didn't see him when I left...' _She took cautious steps, approaching Danny in a roundabout fashion, the floor feeling awfully cold, even beneath her boots. "Please, Danny, try to-"

From her spot near the TV, she saw the window just behind it. Behind the half-pulled curtains, she saw the corners covered in frost, forming webs towards the center, and all around the corners, she could see _hairline cracks_, four parallel and straight cracks, as if done by sharp nails, like a wild animal. She approached it, frowning in confusion.

"_Don't." _Danny warned. He was glaring at the window with half-lidded eyes, again seeing something she couldn't perceive. She didn't know if the warning was directed at her, or at whatever he was glaring at.

There was _something_, right outside their house, and she couldn't see it, and maybe, she couldn't even defend against it.

Maddie took steps back, not knowing where she was supposed to stand, but decided to stay closer to Danny, rather than the strange entity lurking outside.

"...You were saying…?"

"Danny…" She decided to ignore the _thing_ outside – it hadn't barged in yet, so she guessed it wouldn't, for now – in favor of continuing their talk. "Try to understand… we saw what happened. No human could have possibly survived that-"

"But I did…!"

"No, you didn't…"

"You think I didn't! But you're not feeling what I'm feeling. You don't know what it's like…!"

"It's not _possible_ to survive that…!"

Danny only growled quietly, watching the window again, and Maddie felt like her heart skipped several beats in that moment. "Look at this from our perspective, Danny," _'If you have any scrap of empathy in you…'_

"What about _my_ perspective?" He asked loudly, without looking at her. "Doesn't matter, right?" He sounded mocking. "Because _I'm a ghost._"

Her mind barely registered the light flickering in the kitchen, as it quickly stopped. "Don't put words in my mouth, Danny. I never said that, nor did I think that!"

"Could have fooled me."

"You…!" Maddie caught herself before she could say anything she would regret. She didn't need to argue with Danny. He would soon forget about this, as his emotions are short lived. This anger wouldn't last.

He sighed and finally looked at her. "You don't even think I'm _me_…" She could almost hear his voice cracking, but what he said hit too _deep_ for her to care.

"You're… _not_…!" This was not her son… Because she wasn't replacing him.

"I am!" He stood up and stood firm in front of her, looking up to glare, and she could feel the immediate effect. Invasive, haunting, _painful_. It felt like he was purposely attacking her, as her mind seemed to interpret it that way and she wanted to back off immediately. Danny didn't seem to notice, _or care_. "You don't even know what you're talking about!"

Maddie raised her chin and glared down at him. "It is FACT! My Danny _died_! _You_ are the ghost that was created, an _imprint_!" She ignored her instincts further by stepping even closer, and Danny glared to the point his expression became a scowl.

"STOP lying!" He spat, also taking a step closer, driver her nerves numb with the cold as she glared at his now glowing green eyes.

It felt like her heart was going to explode at any given second, and breathing was becoming shallow. "You're the one who's been lying all this time! Don't you _dare_ accuse _me_ of lying!" She knew what she was saying. She'd been studying him all week, and he was wrong! There was no other way around it!

"_You're_ the liar! You _said_ you would help me! But you just wanted a test subject for your damn experiments! And YOU!" He suddenly turned to the window. "Enjoying the show?! Go the hell away! This place is _MINE_!" His screech made the light in the kitchen go out with a loud 'pop' and the TV flickered and went out too, as there was a smell of burnt wires, and all she could see was what the moonlight illuminated through the window, because apparently, the lights near their house suffered a short-cut too, and Danny was left breathing heavily after this.

Maddie ignored the sudden outburst at the invisible entity. "It's not _yours_…!" She felt like she had just stomped her foot down like a child, indignation flaring through, and she was beyond reasoning by this point. "This was _Danny_'s house!" This wasn't _his_, he couldn't replace him, _wouldn't_ replace him…!

His eyes widened, but the scowl remained there, unnatural and irrational _hatred_ was what she saw behind his expression.

'_He's going to attack me…!' _It was all she could think.

Suddenly, his face strained to create a blank look. "…Why don't you just…" His voice sounded strangely calm. "…just admit that you _hate_ me, and that you want me _gone_…?" He asked through gritted teeth.

_This _had_ to be a trick question… _Her mind was brimming with _distrust_.

If she said that she _didn't_ hate him – _she didn't, she couldn't! She was just angry! And he was just being irrationally difficult!_ – he would accuse her of lying, and attack her, and if she said she _did_ hate him – _she swore she didn't!_ – he would get even angrier and attack her.

Either way, he would attack her, so instead of answering, she took cautious steps back, noticing how her feet slipped on the floor, as if she were walking on ice.

She quickly looked down, and saw that indeed, she was walking on ice, as webs of frost creeped beneath her boots slowly, sticking on her soles.

She could ignore the cold, thanks to the adrenaline currently rushing through her body.

She couldn't ignore his threat. "I don't have to take care of you…" She raised her hands, trying to appease him somehow. "I could have just thrown you into the portal and left you alone." 'But I didn't' was left implied.

She imagined those were the right words.

It was like they broke a dam, as Danny's anger vanished, just as short-lived as she had predicted, and his eyes melted back into blue irises. His scowl shifted to something akin to confusion, then fear, then… panic.

"Wait, y-you… you never cared…?" His breathing picked up, and he gripped his hair, shaking his head and taking several steps back, looking around the floor erratically. "You never cared about me! You never cared! You never cared…!" His voice melted into whispers, he used the wall to support himself while he mumbled things she couldn't quite understand.

Maddie couldn't bring herself to walk away, yet she couldn't walk towards him either, _he didn't want her near him_, and just as his anger vanished, hers dissipated to the point where she noticed how small and utterly _pitiful_ he looked…

It's just been little more than a week, and neither of them could take it anymore.

Ghosts are not supposed to stay with humans, just as humans are not supposed to care for ghosts. It just... doesn't _work_ and it only ends in disaster.

Maybe she should have let him walk into the portal… It was his place, after all…

Suddenly, she heard a door opening upstairs, and quick steps coming down the stairs.

"That's it! I'm done listening and waiting!" _Jazz…! _Maddie felt tempted to try to stop her from walking in, but her thought-process was apparently too slow, as Jazz was already by the door. "What's-! ...going on... here..." Jazz stopped, looking around with wide eyes at the frozen floor, at her, at the frozen glass of water, and finally, at Danny, who was still leaning on the wall, now staring blankly at the floor, gripping his hair and looking lost.

"Oh my gosh, Danny!" She ran towards him, and Maddie grabbed her before she could get too close. Danny was unstable right now, unpredictable, dangerous! She couldn't let Jazz go near him!

But Jazz looked at her with an alarmed look, before she yanked her arm with a strength Maddie never knew she had. "What the hell is wrong with you?!" She screeched, leaving Maddie speechless. Jazz never swore before…

She yanked her arm from Maddie's grip and ran towards Danny.

"Jazz, you can't-!" Her plea was left unheard, as her daughter shook Danny's shoulder, visibly startling him out of his stupor, and he immediately grabbed Jazz's wrist, barely looking at her.

Jazz let out a small shriek of pain and instinctively pulled away. Danny came to his senses with the sound and let go.

"J-Jazz…?!" Danny looked thoroughly horrified, covering his mouth in shock.

Maddie pulled Jazz away, quickly inspecting her wrist. It was white on the area that was grabbed, like a claw grabbed her, her skin was frozen… _'Frostbite, maybe second degree…' _was the automatic analysis.

"Aaah...! W-what happened…?!" Jazz asked with a shaky voice, and she looked at Danny for answers, looking back and forth between him and her wrist.

"I-I…I'm so sorry, Jazz! I didn't mean to! I-I didn't mean to…!"

Maddie couldn't hear anything they were saying. All she thought about was getting her daughter somewhere warm where she could treat this, she needed attention immediately.

"You did this…?! But-!"

Jazz was interrupted by a loud noise upstairs, followed by a door opening and heavy running down the stairs.

'_Oh no…' _Was all Maddie thought.

"Dad?" Jazz called.

Jack's bulk form appeared by the doorway, armed with an ecto-gun. "What happened?! What was that noise?!"

Maddie eyed the gun in Jack's hand, and something inside her panicked. She wasn't _angry_ anymore, she just wanted _Danny_ to calm down, so she could properly take care of _Jazz_, and she needed _Jack_ to drop the _gun because_ Danny needed to be left _alone_ for a few hours until he _calmed down_, and _a weapon wasn't going to help!_

She barely noticed how messy her thoughts were. She couldn't focus properly, as every worry just kept buzzing in her head non-stop.

Jack just needed one look-over around the room, seeing Jazz's hurt wrist – she it held with her other hand, trying to placate the pain but failing – and the overall abnormal mess in the living room, and his eyes settled on Danny, who clutched his chest with one hand while the other still covered his mouth as he stared at Jazz, still obviously horrified.

"…_What_ did you _do_?!" He held a hand up, as if wanting to grab Danny, but gave up and immediately pointed the ecto-gun instead. Danny flinched, eyes widening even more and pushed himself against the wall.

"What are you doing, Dad?!" Jazz yelled to him, pulling away from her and standing in front of her father.

"Stay out of this, Jazz!" He lightly pushed her aside. "I knew this would happen! We should've never tried to take care of a ghost!

Jazz shook her head in confusion. "There has to be a perfectly logical explanation for this, Dad! Danny is _not_ a ghost!"

"Yes, he is!"

"Stop saying that! You're hurting him!"

Maddie was completely and utterly lost. Speechless. Feeling like she couldn't do anything. Nothing she said would stop Jack. Danny hurt Jazz, and now, Jack is in his 'protect-family' mode, and he wouldn't let Danny _walk away_.

Jazz didn't look like she heard that much of hers and Danny's argument, she must have grown tired of waiting for valuable information before she decided to run in with her own twisted conclusions.

"You're scaring Danny, Dad! Stop this… this stupid… _thing_! Mom, do something!" Jazz screeched as she continued trying to sprawl herself between Jack and Danny, her short stature not really stopping him from aiming the ecto-gun.

Danny peripherally checked around the room, as if looking for an exit, maybe intending to run into the kitchen and reach the back yard – he couldn't quite phase through things when he wanted to yet.

"How can you do something like that?!" Jazz continued. "T-this is beyond _lunatic_! Look at what you're doing! Bringing this ghost obsession into our lives and threatening to shoot Danny with _that, _instead of_ helping _with whatever this is!"

Danny was preparing to bolt. Maddie could see it in his wide eyes. She turned to her husband. "Jack! Go help Jazz already!"

He looked between her and Jazz without turning his head, his face scrunching into a frown as he fought an inner battle with himself. "No, you go help Jazz. I'll have a talk with _Danny_."

Danny shut his eyes, trying to focus into something, and then Maddie knew he never intended to run, like a normal human at least.

"It's just frostbite," Maddie continued. She didn't want Jack to shoot him, she needed to buy him some time at least. She knew he didn't mean to hurt Jazz. "but it's second degree, so you go treat that! Let _me_ deal with Danny…! You being armed is not helping!"

"What?!" Jazz looked between them, her eyebrows furrowing. "What are you going to do?!"

Jack bit his lower lip, not wanting to lower his guard, but lowered the ecto-gun just a little. Danny chose that moment to suddenly disappear, drawing gasp from Jack and Jazz.

"H-how-!" Jazz didn't have time to ask anything, as Jack grunted and lifted her easily, running towards the stairs. "W-What are you doing to Danny?! You _sickos_! I'll call the police! _And the social services_!"

Even across the hall upstairs, she could still hear her daughter's shrieks. That stung. Jazz never called them anything truly pejorative, or threatened to call the police, or the _social services_… She felt like her daughter would never look at her with any kind of respect again.

But Maddie didn't have time to dwell on that.

She immediately ran towards the door in the kitchen, knowing full-well that Danny could see in the dark and wouldn't be stopped by going outside at this hour. She yanked the door open, but stopped dead on her feet. Her lips parted and her eyes widened slightly as realization hit her.

She didn't hear the sound of a door opening before.

What were the chances of Danny suddenly learning how to become invisible _and_ intangible, at the _same time_?

"_LET ME OUT!" _She heard it from upstairs, Jazz, probably kicking and screaming like a trapped convict. Jack probably locked her in her room… She hoped no one in the neighborhood heard that...

She didn't have time to ponder. Danny didn't leave the house, so the only place left was… the _lab._

Maddie redirected her route to the lab, and half-way down the stairs she heard the whirl of electricity and suddenly she knew exactly where Danny intended to run to.

Somewhere where neither she nor Jack could ever reach him.

She opened the door harshly, instantly focusing in the portal that, just as she predicted, was swirling with green light. She kept her speed constant and tackled his small form before he could walk towards it.

"Huh?!" Danny turned to look at her with frightened eyes, struggling to be free. "No! Let me go!"

"Don't do this, Danny!" She continued to hold him expertly as he struggled and tried to claw his way towards his only exit, but couldn't break the hold of a black-belt like her, she was holding his arm behind him, and even with his enhanced strength, which she sure felt, he couldn't break free from the hold. He was still small after all.

"Let go! Let go! Let GO!" Maddie gasped, as his desire to be free led him to become completely intangible, leaving her with nothing to hold onto.

"Danny! Don't!" He stopped with his back barely grazing the surface of the green light.

She didn't dare get closer. Not out of fear, but because she knew that all he needed was _one_ step back, and he would be gone forever.

Danny's breathing was shallow, he frowned and pursed his lips. His eyes were still wide with fear. "You wanted me gone… you got it then…"

"Please don't…" She was so tired of arguing. "I never wanted you gone…"

Danny sniffed, tears, _real tears_, building up on his eyes. "You never cared about me…"

"I…" She wouldn't have left her husband to take care of her injured daughter to stop him from leaving if she didn't care… She wouldn't have spent all week studying, trying to understand him, if she didn't care… She wouldn't be constantly risking her mental health by being near him if she didn't care…!

But the question was still there. Did she care only because he _looked_ like her Danny? She couldn't bring herself to lie so blatantly now. "...What do you want me to say…?!"

"Just… tell me the truth!" He rasped.

Maddie stared at him for a few good seconds, before she took a deep breath, raising her hand, trying to calm him down out of habit. "… You're not my Danny…"

He tensed and tilted his head upwards, his teeth gritting and eyes widening in sudden anger.

"Just _listen_ to me…! Please…"She took one cautious step forward. "You have all of his memories, and you just _can't_ tell the difference…"

Danny looked like he was reluctantly considering what she was saying, but still not accepting it. The anger still wasn't leaving. "No. No, no... I _know_ who I am... Y-You're wrong...!"

"It's _impossible_ for you to tell the difference, and I understand, I accept it…"

His eyebrows tilted upwards, his foot sliding backwards, like he was suddenly starting to panic again.

"Listen, Danny, what happened with the portal, there's no denying that _our_ Danny died, and you were created, with all of his memories, and this is what this week was all about." She took yet another step. "…I saw, for days now, that you are different, you're not _evil_, and I stood by you, even though Jack was against it, because I _do_ care…!"

"But…"

"…And the truth is…" She stopped. He asked for the truth… "I'm not sure _why_ I care so much."

He continued to stare at her, with that look that reminded her of a kicked puppy, but much more _tragic_. It looked almost like _betrayal_, or on the brink of betrayal.

"I can't tell the difference… you look too much like my Danny for me to tell, and… I saw you, as a ghost, the way you looked like when you first appeared, you can change, and I'm not sure how, and I feel like I'll be able to tell you, if I truly care or not, if I looked at you like that… I want the truth too…."

"You care… because of how I look like…?"

"If you could just… change into that again…"

"Change…?" He looked betrayed, numb, lost. His mind stuck somewhere far away, maybe in a distant memory. His hand barely touched the energy swirling behind him, his eyes becoming green with the contact and even his hair prickled like a cat's fur. "Change…"

Maddie nodded, watching carefully. He shut his eyes tightly, apparently reaching a decision of some sort, seemingly grabbing for more of the portal's energy until he had an otherworldly glow and the sight of the white, glowing rings greeted her once again.

Danny tensed as the rings parted and slipped across him, changing completely. He calmed down almost instantly, and looked down on himself, inspecting his gloved hands, seemingly in a daze of some sort, as if he'd just forgotten she was there.

He projected himself with the HAZMAT suit, just like she expected, but reversed all of his colors, and she couldn't help but wonder why. His hair became a startling white, shaking her memory from that day, of him on the floor, looking at her, scared and confused, with the look of a child, looking at his mother for answers and comfort.

His skin was tan – maybe the symbolization of a skin burn from the shock – it didn't look sickly white or anything, and his glow made him look otherworldly, instead of demonic like she imagined most ghosts would be.

She didn't have other ghosts to compare him to, but she thought he was a _beautiful creature_ and she was speechless.

Danny seemed to deflate after his self-inspecting, as if accepting something, looking uncomfortably impassive, as if finally looking at things objectively, logically.

As if the world suddenly _made sense_.

Maybe he doesn't feel the need for complex emotions in this form.

"It feels weird." He mumbled to himself.

Maddie almost jumped at the echo in his voice, like he was far away, yet, somehow, very close.

His burning green eyes suddenly snapped at her, he blinked, as if finally remembering she was there. His eyes moved to look at the portal, but stopped half-way and looked at her again.

Maddie was in front of a real ghost for what felt like the first time, and it was he own son's ghost. And there was no pleading or frightened look on his face. Only a haunting indifference. "You were saying?"

* * *

**A/N: Yeeeah...**

**So, Jazz knows, kinda, and she's freaking out already. Which is good. I can finally dive in all that psychology knowledge I love so much! Sciences and Psychology, my favorites! **

**And we have Phantom now! He sounds like a douche though... I was going to finish this conversation, but like I said, I had to cut it there. I don't think the chapter length will escalate further, but then again, I did say that last chapter and BAM, I did it again. **

**This seems to be getting more and more difficult to write. I'm sure it's because things are getting too tense, and after next chapter, things will cool off, and I'll either have the interlude, or we'll go straight to CANON, finally.**

**So, Chapter 7, we have canon. **

**Anyway, please Review/Fave/Follow, tell me how it went! I'm not sure if it's good enough (I'm never sure, really...) **

**But still, REVIEW! You guys gave me awesome ideas last time!**


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